Plans to build a fleet of nuclear reactors in Britain could be accelerated under a scheme being considered by the Government and some of Britain’s biggest power companies.

If implemented, the plans could chop as much as 18 months off the time required to complete nuclear stations by applying new construction methods and by shortening a detailed review of the technology proposed for use in the UK.

E.ON, the German power giant; EDF, its rival controlled by the French state, and Areva, the French designer of so-called EPR reactors proposed for use in Britain, are all studying “modular” construction methods similar to those developed to build offshore oil platforms.

Senior executives at EDF, including Bill Coley, chief executive of British Energy, its UK subsidiary, have said that their adoption could cut the time needed to build each reactor from five to three and a half years.

Rather than conventional on-site construction, the proposal would involve prefabricating large pieces of the reactors, each of which are expected to cost about £5 billion, at another, probably indoor location, then floating them into place on giant barges. The concept is considered suitable for Britain because the proposed sites for the new stations are at waterside locations. The concept is already being used by Toshiba Westing-house, Areva’s key rival in the market for nuclear reactor technology.

Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK, the German company that is also planning jointly to build at least four nuclear reactors in the UK, told The Times this week that use of modular construction could significantly “compress the timeframes”, although he emphasised that it would still be impossible to complete any reactors in Britain before 2015.

Adverse weather has been a big problem in the conventional construction of the world’s first EPR reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland, which is up to three years behind schedule.

EDF said modular construction offered potential benefits but added that there were also practical problems, including the need for large areas to lay down equipment and good access roads and ports close to proposed sites.

All but one of Britain’s ten ageing nuclear stations, which produce 20 per cent of the country’s electricity, are due to be retired from service by 2025 at the latest – threatening a yawning gap in Britain’s power supply in about four years’ time as the process unfolds. The Government wants to replace them but, under current plans, the first new plant would not enter service before 2017.

Another possibility being studied by the Government is to speed up the certification of new reactor designs by the nuclear safety regulator. Building reactors is a lengthy and complex process but, because the proposed designs have never been used in the UK before, a detailed safety review has to be carried out before construction can begin.

The Government believes that by strengthening the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) with extra resources and funding, the construction time could be cut.

Ministers are also looking at ways to allow the NII to borrow from similar French and American reviews of the new reactors that are already under way.

“It would be more of a peer review model where UK inspectors could verify and build on work already carried out elsewhere,” one industry source said.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change said that a series of detailed reforms of the NII were likely to be tabled this month.

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