Moorside nuclear power project in UK in doubt

• 7 years ago (2017-04-03)
• David Flin

Toshiba 4

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The financial crisis at Toshiba has put the planned new nuclear plant at Moorside, Cumbria, UK in doubt. Toshiba is looking to sell its majority stake in NuGen, the consortium due to build Moorside. Kepco is generally considered the most likely buyer.

Greg Clark, Business Secretary of the UK, said that he will be meeting senior officials from the South Korean government to discuss potential investment in the project by Kepco on his visit to Seoul this week.

Kepco has said that it will undertake due diligence on the issues relating to the problems facing the project before it commits to using the AP1000.

Kepco confirmed last month that it was considering joining the Moorside project. However, its participation is considered to be in doubt, and it is believed to be seeking assurances from the British government over contributions from the government towards the cost of building the project.

Another point of discussion will be whether Kepco will continue with the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors planned for Moorside, or use its own APR1400 technology. The AP1000 has been approved for use at Moorside by the UK nuclear regulator. Replacing the technology with the APR1400 would delay the project by several years.