Ministers have been looking at several options including building a high-level waste storage facility or pressing ahead with a second mixed oxide (Mox) fuel plant at Sellafield, which would cost £3bn to build and a similar sum to run and decommission.

Sellafield unions and politicians in Cumbria have lobbied for a second Mox plant to save the 1,000 jobs that could be lost with the closure of the existing £1.3bn Sellafield Mox Plant, which is deemed unfit for purpose.

Also this week, energy secretary Chris Huhne is expected to back the next generation of nuclear power station plants after the publication of the findings of the latest safety review in the wake of Japan’s Fukishima disaster.