The UK’s National Grid on Monday unveiled a proposal to connect NuGen’s planned nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria to the electric grid using lines placed underground and below Morecambe Bay.
The 102-mile, $3.4 billion Cumbrian connection would pass through pristine Cumbrian countryside, including the Lake District National Park. To preserve this environment, National Grid proposes to pass over a quarter of its connection below ground in the western section of the national park, and through a tunnel beneath the bay in the southern portion of the park.
National Grid says the plan would render existing pylons in the western portion of the park redundant, allowing this area to be free of visible infrastructure for the first time in 50 years. The plan also calls for the removal of a low-voltage line in the vicinity of the Hadrian’s Wall UNESCO World Heritage site. This line, too, would be replaced by an underground connection.