MANCHESTER, England, July 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
NuGen, the UK nuclear new build developer, today (1 July) announced that Takeshi Yokota will take over as Chairman of the company developing Europe's largest new nuclear power station, at Moorside, West Cumbria.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385621 )
Mr. Yokota is hugely experienced across the energy business portfolio of parent-company Toshiba and is currently Executive Officer and Corporate Senior Vice President of Toshiba.
He will also lead Toshiba's activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and will relocate to offices in London, where he will be based.
Mr. Yokota, will work closely with NuGen's board and CEO Tom Samson as the Manchester-based company takes forward development of NuGen into a company capable of delivering the next generation of nuclear reactors to provide safe, reliable and secure electricity to the United Kingdom.
NuGen's Moorside project is one of Europe's largest infrastructure projects. The project aims to build three reactors capable of producing seven per cent of the UK's future electricity at the site, to the north and west of the current Sellafield site.
Mr. Yokota has a B.S.C and M.S.C degree in electrical engineering from Yokohama National University. He also graduated from the business school of Keio University and Harvard University.
He has played an integral part in Toshiba's development as a global company and has worked in areas as diverse as transmission and distribution, photovoltaic systems, and smart grids - and he has played an internationally-important leadership role to standardise activities of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Council on Large Electric Systems (Cigre), and the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
Mr Yokota joined Toshiba in 1982, and he takes over from Shigenori Shiga, who is Chairman of Toshiba.
Tom Samson, Chief Executive of NuGen, warmly welcomed Mr. Yokota to the project.
"We look forward to working with our new chairman and board to drive forward our phenomenal project at Moorside. I am confident his renowned international experience combined with being based in the UK will greatly assist in our dealings with key stakeholders, including government."
NuGen's Moorside project has moved up through the gears since the company re-located to its Piccadilly Place headquarters in Manchester city centre, at the heart of the UK's "Northern Powerhouse", in early 2015. Onshore and offshore assessments continue to inform site layout, and the company also launched a world-first competition for architects and landscapers to come up with inspirational design ideas for the Moorside nuclear power station.
NuGen is also half-way through its second-stage Development Consent Order public consultation, where it has showcased its proposals for delivering the three reactors at Moorside. The company plans to make its Final Investment Decision (FID) towards the end of 2018.
Notes to editors
010706 New Chairman.jpg, Caption: NuGen's new Chairman, Takeshi Yokota.
About NuGen
NuGen is a UK nuclear company owned by Toshiba and ENGIE (formerly GDF SUEZ).
When fully operational, the planned Moorside reactors will have a combined capacity of up to 3.8GW gross, enough to power up to six million homes. The first of the three Westinghouse AP1000® reactors is targeted to come online in the mid-2020s. NuGen's Moorside project will help support the UK Government's low carbon and energy security objectives at a time when existing power plants are retiring and low-carbon generation is required to meet national and international commitments.
Construction of the new reactors will create thousands of skilled jobs over the next decade, and the project is expected to significantly boost the local, regional and national economies, with a large portion of the development and construction programmes accessible to the UK supply chain.
AP1000® is a trademark of Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All rights reserved.
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