A new company has been created to "accelerate" progress on a major project at a Nottinghamshire power station which is expected to create 10,000 jobs. The UK's first ever nuclear fusion energy plant will be based at the West Burton A power station near Retford.
The Government is planning to end the use of coal power in the UK by October 2024 and, as part of this, the country's three remaining coal-fired powered stations are being decommissioned. Two of the remaining plants are in Nottinghamshire, with plans having already been revealed for the future of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar site.
The West Burton plant was announced last year as the location where the UK's first Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) plant will be based, beating other locations including Moorside in Cumbria and Goole in Yorkshire. Some Nottinghamshire MPs have claimed the project could replace the county's lost mining jobs, with the site expected to become operational in 2040.
