The Minister for Energy (Michael Shanks)
The UK’s nuclear sector will play a critical role in delivering the Government’s clean energy superpower mission and supporting economic growth. The Government will ensure that the right enablers are in place to support the sector to deploy new nuclear projects across England and Wales, including a suitable planning framework.
To improve the planning framework for nuclear infrastructure, today the final version of the new national policy statement on nuclear energy infrastructure—called EN-7—was laid before Parliament, according to section 9(8) of the Planning Act 2008.
EN-7 sets out the policy for considering development consent applications for new nuclear fission infrastructure. The NPS will be applicable to nuclear infrastructure proposed to produce over 50 MW of electricity in England and 350 MW of electricity in Wales. It introduces a criteria-based approach, removes the deployment deadline for new projects, and expands the range of technologies covered to include small and advanced modular reactors in addition to the existing gigawatt-scale reactors. The new planning framework is robust, transparent and agile, and it will empower developers to identify potentially suitable sites against a set of criteria, ensuring safety, sustainability and the mitigation of impacts on the host community.
Once EN-7 is approved, either by resolution by the House of Commons, or by deemed consent by the House of Commons following a “consideration period” of 21 sitting days, it will enter into force.
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