Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of (a) Moorside and (b) Sellafield as possible locations for Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Modular Reactors.

The Government is actively considering siting policy for small reactors. We recognise that there is growing local and regional interest for the development of many sites with SMRs or AMRs, including sites in Cumbria. Our work is exploring the arguments made to us that new, smaller power plants should use existing or reuse former nuclear licensed sites to take advantage of past investment in infrastructure and grid connections at those sites, and the skilled workforces around them. There are also arguments for exploring new sites. This work on siting is ongoing and we intend to provide an update during the course of the year.