THE nuclear developer NuGen has given another statement of intent that its plans for new build at Sellafield are on track. 

Following the announcement in August that NuGen had agreed to buy land at Moorside, Sellafield, from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, it has almost doubled the size of its headquarters in Manchester. 

NuGen has taken the whole of the 12,700 sq ft eighth floor at 3 Piccadilly Place, in addition to the 16,200 sq ft seventh floor which it moved into earlier this year. 

It says that it chose to co-ordinate the Moorside project from Manchester because the city is the “centre of the Northern Powerhouse”. 

Gary Shuttleworth, director of corporate affairs, said: “The momentum and progress of the Moorside project has seen our organisation rapidly outgrow its current Manchester location. 

“We will continue to expand as the Moorside project gets ready to start an intensive period of site characterisation before the next stage of public consultation begins next year.”

 NuGen expects to make a final decision on whether to proceed with Moorside by the end of 2018. The go ahead would trigger investment of £10bn. 

At peak construction, 6,000 people will be working on site to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors. 

Capacity Construction is due to start in 2020 and the first reactor should be on stream by 2024, and all three by 2026. 

Their combined 3.6GW capacity will supply seven per cent of the UK’s electricity needs. Meanwhile, one of partners in the Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) consortium that operates Sellafield has seen its share price plunge. Shares in the engineering group Amec Foster Wheeler fell by 20 per cent in early trading yesterday THURS after it slashed its dividend by half. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has announced plans to strip NMP of its contract at Sellafield from next year. 

That was not the only blow to Amec Foster Wheeler, which also operates the oil, gas and mining sectors.

 It blamed “tough market conditions” for the dividend cut and outlined plans to make £120m of savings by 2017. 

The company will continue to be a major player at Sellafield, even after NMP’s contract ends. It recently won a 10-year contract to supply radioactive waste analysis at the site. 

And it is part of a joint venture, with Jacobs and Balfour Beatty, that won the engineering, procurement and construction framework for the Box Encapsulation Plant project, worth up to £336m over four years.