There don’t appear to be any current proposals for new reactors at Heysham in Lancashire or Hartlepool in County Durham, although Hartlepool has been mentioned as a possible site for a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Newcastle company Penultimate Power, formed by long-standing nuclear power advocate Ian Fells, emeritus professor of energy at Newcastle University, was created in 2012 to develop SMRs. It is the only UK company positioned to do so and wants to develop a manufacturing plant in the region and trial the world’s first SMR on land next to the existing Hartlepool nuclear power plant. (See nuClear News No.76 August 2015)
“In response to the climate emergency Lancaster City Council should embrace the local energy revolution, not old, dangerous, centralised, redundant nuclear technology.” Radiation Free Lakeland have been watching with increasing frustration not to mention growing horror as climate emergency resolutions are adopted by councils without any clause or caveat at all that new nuclear should not be an option. The reasons why it should not be on the table or anywhere near it are outlined in a new report by the Edinburgh Energy and Environment Consultancy which is being delivered to Lancaster City Council with a demand that LCC include a ‘No Nuclear’ Clause in their Climate Emergency measures.
The Hydrogen to Heysham (H2H) project led by EDF Energy is planning to use electrolysers connected to the Heysham nuclear power station to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The October 2019 Feasibility Study is available here.
Bay Fusion has proposed Heysham as a potential site for an experimental Fusion reactor. The site had made it onto a short-list of 15 potential sites. For more on Fusion see the NFLA’s briefing.
