A huge expansion of nuclear power was announced by the Government today as it named ten proposed sites alongside a planning process to push through acceptance within a year.

The first new station is set to be operational by 2018 and by 2025 nuclear electricity generation could amount to around 40 per cent of new energy provision.

Nine of the new sites are in England, including three in Cumbria, with the tenth in Anglesey, north Wales.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Secretary, also set out an “ambitious” new policy for the transition to clean-coal generation, as well as confirming targets for generating 30 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Mr Miliband said that there would be no new coal-fired power stations unless they were fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Mr Miliband said that significantly more generating capacity was needed in the long term to meet the UK’s low-carbon energy challenge, partly because of the intermittency of wind generation.

One third of future generating capacity must be given consent and built by 2025, said the minister, adding: “While there are already proposals to build more energy infrastructure, more is needed to bring about the shift to a low-carbon future.”

Mr Miliband said that a series of policy statements published by the Government today included a clear direction towards a “massive expansion” in renewables, a new nuclear programme based around ten sites, as well as moves to introduce clean-coal technology.

The ten sites named today are at Braystones, Sellafield and Kirksanton, all in Cumbria, Heysham in Lancashire, Hartlepool, Co Durham, Sizewell in Suffolk, Bradwell in Essex, Hinkley Point in Somerset, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey.

An eleventh site was put forward earlier this year by energy companies as a possible location for a new nuclear power station but the Government announced today that the site at Dungeness in Kent had not been included in today’s list because of concerns about coastal erosion and flood risk.

Three other potential sites were also looked at but were found not to be suitable. These sites were at Druridge Bay in Northumberland, Kingsnorth in Kent and Owston Ferry in South Yorkshire.

Mr Miliband said: “The threat of climate change means we need to make a transition from a system that relies heavily on high-carbon fossil fuels to a radically different system that includes nuclear, renewable and clean-coal power.

“Change is also needed for energy security. In a world where our North Sea reserves are declining, a more diverse, low-carbon energy mix is a more secure energy mix, less vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability of any one fuel.”

Mr Miliband said that the current planning system was a barrier to this shift in emphasis, maintaining that it served neither the interests of energy security nor of people living in areas where new stations might be built.

“That is why we are undertaking fundamental reform of the planning system, which will result in a more efficient, transparent and accessible process," he said.

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