Six of Europe's biggest energy firms are pushing for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor to be used in the next generation of British nuclear power stations.
The parent company of nuclear fuel manufacturing factory Springfields Fuels Ltd, which employs 1,500 people in Salwick, near Preston, has revealed that it has set up a licensing group to push the reactor design as the next phase to be selected.
Th
e group includes Germany's E.ON and RWE npower, Spanish giants Endesa Generación and Iberdrola, French firm Electrabel-SUEZ and Swedish energy group Vattenfall.
It will see all the firms share the costs of taking the design through the UK selection process.
Westinghouse senior vice-president for new power plants Dan Lipman said: "The AP1000 design has been developed with an enormous amount of utility input, and I am delighted that so many potential customers in the UK are working closely with us.
"We will now collectively seek to demonstrate that the design meets all necessary UK regulatory standards."
Last week, Springfields managing director Mike Tynan told the Evening Post that the selection of the AP1000 model would secure jobs at the Lancashire base.
Four AP1000s are currently being built in China with a further two ordered in the United States and the support of some of the biggest energy providers in Europe will add weight to the reactor's case in the UK, where it is one of three designs being considered.
* Staff at Springfields have raised £15,924 for children's charity Barnardos through a series of fund-raising events over the last year.
The site, which has raised more than £55,000 for charity in recent years, has chosen the neonatal unit at the Royal Preston Hospital for 2008/09.The full article contains 295 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
