Foreign investors line up for stake in £10bn nuclear power project

TALKS are place between overseas investors and the developers of the £10bn Moorside nuclear power station project in Cumbria – the biggest of its kind in Europe.

Joint venture group NuGen is negotiating with banks and other nuclear firms about the plant, which will have capacity to supply up to six million homes.

A decision on the investment for the site, near the Sellafield nuclear power station, will be made in 2018.

“We are talking to potential investors familiar with the nuclear industry, including banks, credit-export agencies and nuclear companies in countries interested in nuclear new build projects,” a NuGen spokesperson said on the BBC.

State-run South Korean company Korea Electric Power Corporation is among the companies interested, the Financial Times has said.

Any deal with existing owners Toshiba of Japan and Engie of France, would boost Moorside at a time when rival nuclear plans at Hinkley Point have been thrown into question after Prime Minister Theresa delayed a decision on whether to ahead with the project.

Moorside will employ 21,000 workers over the lifetime of the project and provide enough power for 7% of the UK’s electricity requirements when the reactors are switched on in the mid 2020s.

The three reactors would be provided by Westinghouse, the US subsidiary of Toshiba which supplies about half of the world’s operating nuclear plants.