18 more nuclear sites offered to developers in Britain

London, Mar 6 (UNI) Britain today offered 18 more sites to developers for building new nuclear power stations in the country.

Business Secretary John Hutton welcomed plans for sites owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to be made available to developers, saying, ''Interest in building new nuclear power stations in the UK is strong.'' ''Planning applications for new plants are likely to focus on areas in the vicinity of existing sites and so it's welcome that the NDA is making its significant land and other assets available to the market,'' he said in a statement on the Government News Network.

The NDA issued a notice asking interested parties to state during the next four weeks, by April 3, which assets they were interested in.

Mr Hutton invited energy companies to come forward with proposals for new nuclear power stations on January 10 and since then there has been considerable interest in the role the NDA's sites could play.

NDA land, the fuel manufacturing business at Springfields and uranic material could be used in building or operating the next generation of stations, or for other commercial opportunities.

The NDA owns 18 sites, two of which are still operational and 16 are in decommissioning.

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