Springfields, Lancashire, United Kingdom – Westinghouse Electric Company today announced the plan to establish the Clean Energy Technology Park at the Springfields nuclear licensed site in Lancashire. The Springfields site has been manufacturing nuclear fuel for more than 75 years, and currently provides the fuel for more than 30% of the UK’s low carbon electricity.
The Clean Energy Technology Park will be a vibrant innovation campus open to technology developers, supply chain and academia to co-locate and collaborate to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear technologies. It will also be a centre of excellence for nuclear materials management, which will exist alongside Westinghouse’s industry-leading fuel manufacturing facilities already on the Springfields site.
Launching the Clean Energy Technology Park today to an invited audience from Government, the nuclear industry, and the local community, Brian Nixon, Westinghouse’s managing director, U.K. fuel operations, said, “The Clean Energy Technology Park at Springfields will be the place to invest, innovate and grow nuclear in the UK, and we are absolutely delighted to be able to welcome industry, academia and developers to collaborate with us in order to help realise the UK’s Net Zero commitment by 2050.”
Mark Menzies, Member of Parliament for Fylde, added, “Westinghouse is a global leader in the nuclear industry and a major employer in the North West of England. As the UK transitions towards Net Zero carbon emissions in 2050, I am delighted that the Clean Energy Technology Park will be located at Springfields. This will ensure the site remains at the forefront of advancements in nuclear technology, providing highly skilled jobs, significant economic benefits and enabling innovation to flourish in the North West.”
The site is a key player in the Northern Powerhouse and at the centre of the North-West Nuclear Arc, a network of nuclear sites stretching from Cumbria to North Wales. There are significant benefits of locating at the site, including working with an industry leading nuclear operator on an established nuclear site licence; environmental permits allowing a broad range of activities; large areas of land available for development; access to world-class people and facilities; and regulatory and compliance support.
