The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

23 January 2009

The NDA has today announced that it expects to nominate land near Sellafield, Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell, for consideration under the Government’s Strategic Siting Assessment (SSA) process to identify sites suitable for nuclear new build.

Whilst the NDA is not proposing to develop new nuclear plants itself and will not seek planning permission, it expects to nominate land into the SSA process in order to enhance the value of its land and in turn generate income which will help fund the decommissioning programme.

The NDA has significant land holdings in West Cumbria that are surplus to operational requirements which it intends to release to the market as part of a land disposal process announced last year. Market feedback indicates there is potential interest in the NDA’s land adjacent to the Sellafield site for a variety of purposes including new build.

The NDA also expects to be nominating land at three other sites which are currently being disposed of via an auction process. These sites are at Wylfa on Anglesey, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Bradwell in Essex. As with Sellafield, on completion of the land sales, responsibility for taking the sites forward through the planning and development stages would pass to the new owners.

Richard Waite, NDA’s Acting Chief Executive, said:

"Our aim is to secure value from our assets for the benefit of the taxpayer. To achieve this, we expect to nominate land into the SSA process. Particularly for West Cumbria and Anglesey, such a move has the added benefit of contributing towards the socio-economic aims of those communities."

An announcement on the process and timing for the Sellafield land sale will be made in due course and in light of experience gained from the current auction of land for Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell.