The government will meet around 80 senior nuclear power industry players on Thursday to help the government draw up a road-map towards the building of new nuclear power stations.

Secretary of State for Business John Hutton will address the Westminster summit and attempt to drum up enthusiasm among investors considering playing a part in new nuclear building.

The government gave the green light to new nuclear power stations early this year, saying they would help meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on imported energy and dwindling North Sea oil and gas supplies.

Each station is likely to cost around 3 billion euros (2.4 billion pounds) to build, meaning huge upfront investment will need to be attracted both from British and overseas companies.

A Department for Business spokesman said Hutton will present research showing Britain to be second only to the United States in terms of investor appetite for nuclear build.

"They will discuss how to move forward with new nuclear - the technology, design, waste disposal, planning guidelines it has to work together within a huge framework," he said.

There would be opportunities for attendees, to include CEOs and top management from energy companies, to voice their concerns directly to the government.

"It's an opportunity for the industry and government to have an open and frank discussion - (to) identify issues that could impede the development of future stations," said a spokesman for the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), whose chief executive, Keith Parker, is attending the event.

BRITISH ENERGY

A nuclear energy consultant, who did not wish to be named, said there were many challenges but perhaps the most severe was the threat from environmentalists opposed to nuclear power.

"The stations need to be built as quickly as possible. A tactical option for the greens would be to delay the building process - that's what escalates the capital cost," he said.

Hutton has invited companies to draw up plans to build and operate new stations and said land surrounding 18 mostly shut-down sites around Britain would be made available for sale and development through the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) - a body set up to clean up after nuclear.

Around 30 parties expressed an interest in the sites, but many of Europe's biggest utilities are also looking at a takeover of operator British Energy.

BE, 35 percent owned by the government, has eight nuclear power stations at prime locations around Britain and is at the centre of plans for new build.

The government is keen to hand control of the nuclear industry to more than one party and reactor design, but so far only one bid for BE - from France's EDF - has been put on the table.

Earlier this week, BE said it was not clear whether or not an offer will go through and it was open to discussions about partnerships.