Industry Nuclear power Website www.nugeneration.com Founded 2009 Owners Toshiba, Engie | Products Electricity CEO Tom Samson (1 Jun 2015–) Headquarters Manchester | |
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Nugeneration
NuGeneration (NuGen) is a company with plans to build a new nuclear power station nearby the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom. The proposed site is called Moorside, and is to the north and west of Sellafield.
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History
NuGen was established in February 2009 as a joint venture between ENGIE (formerly GDF Suez), Iberdrola and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). The initial holdings in NuGen were ENGIE and Iberdrola each with 37.5% and SSE with 25%.
The company announced plans to build a new nuclear power station of up to 3.6GW capacity adjacent to the Sellafield complex in North West England. In October 2009, it purchased an option to acquire land around Sellafield from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for £70 million. The company will make a final investment decision in 2015 with a view to starting production in 2023. When it began, NuGen evaluated building either two Areva 1,650 MWe EPR or three Westinghouse 1,100 MWe AP1000 reactors.
In September 2011, SSE announced that it was leaving the consortium, with ENGIE and Iberdrola buying SSE out to increase their stakes to 50% each.
In December 2013, Toshiba, through its Westinghouse subsidiary, agreed to pay £85 million for Iberdrola's 50% share of NuGen. Toshiba also intends to purchase part of ENGIE's stake, giving it 60% ownership. The change in ownership will cause the chosen new build reactor to the Westinghouse 1,100 MWe AP1000, with a target first operation date of 2024.
In June 2014, Toshiba and ENGIE announced plans for three AP1000s at Moorside at a cost of at least £10 billion. The build is planned to start in 2020, with a target of having the first reactor operating in 2024. Sandy Rupprecht, who had headed development of the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, will be the new chief executive of NuGen. The final investment decision will probably be made in 2018.
In 2015, NuGen re-located its headquarters to Manchester. In July 2015, NuGen purchased the land near Sellafield it had an option on, approximately 200 hectares, for an undisclosed sum.
The AP1000 design requires Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) Generic Design Assessment, which was initially planned to finish in March 2017. However as of November 2016 the ONR noted there was a "very large amount of assessment to complete with issues still emerging". Slippage of the completion date is likely.
In February 2017 the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that Toshiba, following financial difficulties in 2016, wished to sell its shares in Westinghouse and NuGen over the next few years, although Toshiba stated to remain committed to the project.