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City 'set to be the hub of UK's nuclear industry'
SHEFFIELD is set to become the hub of the UK's expanding civil nuclear industry, Parliament has been told.
Business secretary Lord Mandelson told the House of Lords that South Yorkshire is in line to benefit from "new jobs, new industries and new ties to the global and European economies".
He was reporting back to peers on his visit earlier this week to the region, in which he announced plans for a 25 million research centre and a new Rolls-Royce factory focused on nuclear energy.
The Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre will be run by Sheffield University and Rolls-Royce, which says it intends in principal to site a brand new civil nuclear factory in the region, with the help of 45 million investment by the Government.
The Nuclear AMRC is expected to create up to 80 jobs for researchers, technicians, engineers and apprentices, who will mainly be recruited from the Sheffield region.
Speaking in the upper chamber, Lord Mandelson said Sheffield and Rotherham had re-invented themselves from "metal bashers to modern manufacturers" over the last 30 years.
He added: "Fifteen years ago, too much of the talk in Sheffield was about what had been lost.
"These days it is increasingly about what is being built and renewed: new jobs, new industries and new ties to the global and European economies. Now Sheffield has the potential to be a hub for the UK's civil nuclear supply chain."
But anti-nuclear campaigners in South Yorkshire have been left dismayed by the strategy.
Dave Webb, convener of the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "Nuclear is a dirty, dangerous and expensive form of power. It adds to the threat of nuclear proliferation, contamination by toxic radioactive nuclear waste and nuclear accidents.
"We only need to look at the consequences of Chernobyl to see how dangerous nuclear really is."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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