£20m nuclear research site to open - graduate jobs

Science and technology graduates will be encouraged to hear 40 new jobs are to be created at the £20 million nuclear research centre by the University of Manchester site in Cumbria.

Copeland planners have given the go-ahead for construction of the centre at Westlakes Science and Technology Park near Whitehaven. Construction of the 2,000 sq m facility is expected to begin in the autumn and last about 12 months, before 40 postgraduate researchers and staff move in.

The facility will be important to radiation science and nuclear engineering decommissioning research, said the university, which has jointly funded the project with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute director Professor Andrew Sherry said: "The challenge of safe and secure energy supply within a low-carbon economy has created the environment for a renaissance in civil nuclear power.

"New skills and research are required to underpin plant life extension, new nuclear build, future reactor systems and nuclear waste management and disposal."