NuGeneration has congratulated Copeland by-election winner Trudy Harrison following last night’s result in Whitehaven, as the company moves forward with plans to build a new nuclear power plant at Moorside. NuGen, which is the UK joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba Corp and France’s Engie, said it would work closely with the newly-elected British member of parliament as it “continues to build a robust business case” for the project.

The by-election in the seat of Copeland, in which the Sellafield site is located, was triggered by the resignation in December of Jamie Reed as a member of parliament for the UK’s Labour Party. Reed resigned to become head of development and community relations at Sellafield Ltd. Conservative Party candidate Harrison, who worked as a technical clerk for Sellafield Ltd for five years until 1998, won with 13,748 votes to 11,601 for the Labour Party’s Gillian Troughton.

NuGen CEO Tom Samson said he was committed to a close working relationship with Harrison “to help underpin the region’s biggest-ever private investment”. The project will be “transformational for the area”, he added.

NuGen said on 14 February that Toshiba is committed to Moorside despite announcing it would reduce its exposure to reactor construction projects outside Japan. NuGen plans to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at the site in West Cumbria, using AP1000 nuclear reactor technology provided by Westinghouse.

National media have noted the historic significance of Harrison’s victory. Copeland, created in 1983, and its predecessor constituency Whitehaven have returned Labour MPs since 1935. It is also the UK’s first by-election gain by a governing party since 1982.