It’s good to see our Gloucestershire MPs and key local government figures putting their wholehearted support behind plans to site the world’s first fusion power plant in the county.
I was impressed by the MPs’ commitment at a meeting called by Stroud’s MP, Siobhan Baillie who is leading the charge in the House of Commons to land the project for this county.
If the Gloucestershire bid -powered by Business West, South West Nuclear Hub and Heart of the South West LEP - is successful the initial £220million plant could be sited on land around the decommissioned nuclear plant at Berkeley.
Fusion is the power that drives our sun, forcing hydrogen ions together to produce huge amounts of energy.
After her MPs meeting, Siobhan told me:
“The country needs a diverse and world class energy mix as we move away from fossil fuels and towards our 2050 net carbon neutral target.
“A fusion power station will be world leading and offers immense regional opportunities for jobs, skills, apprenticeships and supply chain investment.
“I am working to gather cross party support from MPs in the South West to make the case to the government.
“There is much work to do ahead of the first nomination stage and then to campaign to show how the South West can deliver the project. I am hugely impressed by the expertise behind the nomination and convinced the ambition is here to see this project through.”
Backing up Siobhan were Richard Graham, Gloucester’s MP, Mark Harper MP for the Forest of Dean and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for the Cotswolds.
All very experienced operators.
And Richard Graham made the point that when they lobbied government for the so called “missing link” on the A417 near Gloucester they recruited MPs’ support from all over the region-not just Gloucestershire.
And it was good to see that Katherine Bennett in her role as chair of the Western Gateway partnership spoke enthusiastically about the project and the need to get up and running with a campaign fast.
This is an enormously exciting project which could also harness the incredible nuclear skills and knowledge Gloucestershire already has through EDF.
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