A big name consortium has filed an expression of interest in buying land suitable for new nuclear power plants adjacent to the nuclear site at Sellafield.

Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), GDF Suez (GSZ.FR) and Scottish and Southern Energy PLC (SSE.LN)  have been linked before to land near the nuclear plant in west Cumbria.

News of the latest developments in the contest for the land have been released by the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this year, the consortium pulled out of the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's online auction for three plots of land suitable for new nuclear, but said then it was still interested in other opportunities.

GDF Suez said in April it aimed to work with its partners to build one or two nuclear power reactors in the U.K. by 2020.

The U.K. is in the midst of a big push to renew its aging fleet of nuclear power stations, most of which are due to be retired over the next 15 years, in an effort to keep the lights on, shore up energy security and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) is leading the expansion of the U.K.'s nuclear power industry and plans to have the first of its four new reactors operational in 2017.

A joint venture between German utilities RWE AG (RWE.XE) and E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) is also looking to build six gigawatts of new nuclear power by 2025, with land purchased in an earlier NDA auction.

A spokesman for NDA said it had received a "healthy level of interest" from companies for the Sellafield land, but declined to give any details on which companies were interested.

The NDA, which closed the period for expressions of interest at the beginning of August, is now in discussions with the interested companies and will make an announcement about how the land will be disposed.

It hasn't yet been decided if the land will be sold in an online auction, through sealed bids or through a negotiated deal. However, the NDA is still on track to complete the sale by the end of the year, the spokesman said.

Separately, EDF said discussions relating to the potential divestment of land at Heysham and Dungeness that it received through its acquisition of U.K. nuclear power generator British Energy are ongoing.

The Iberdrola spokesman said the company was open to the EDF process.

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