National Grid said in a statement released at the start of last week that it has ‘paused’ plans for grid infrastructure work needed for the proposed Moorside nuclear power plant, while developer NuGeneration (NuGen) conducts a strategic review of the project.

National Grid unveiled proposals in October 2016 for a £2.8 billion project to connect the planned plant in West Cumbria to the electricity network, ahead of 10 weeks of consultation that it completed in early January.

A spokeswoman said: “Following NuGen’s announcement of a strategic review, we are pausing work on our connection. This will ensure that we can align our plans, both for the application for consent and the development
of the infrastructure itself.”

NuGen, which is a 60-40% joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba and France’s Engie, intends to build a nuclear-power plant of up to 3.8GW capacity at Moorside.

When the National Grid unveiled its proposal for the Moorside project, it said it planned to put lines underground and under Morecambe Bay to protect the Lake District National Park — and that more than a quarter of the lines could be underground.

According to the proposal, some 14.5 miles of new lines will pass through the entire western section of the National Park underground.

This could see the complete removal of existing overhead lines there, leaving this part of the Park free of pylons for the first time in 50 years.