INTERVIEW - GE Hitachi returning to UK nuclear new build race

By Nao Nakanishi

LONDON (Reuters) - GE Hitachi is poised to resume efforts to build new nuclear power stations in Britain after putting these plans on hold last year to focus on the U.S. market, a company executive said.

Britain wants to build nuclear power stations to replace its ageing fleet of reactors and many of Europe's biggest utilities are lining up to take part.

GE Hitachi is in talks with utilities that have bought land to build plants and expects to have one or two of its new design ESBWR reactors in service in Britain by 2025, Daniel Roderick, vice president of GE Hitachi's new plant projects, told Reuters on Thursday.

"We believe, even though we stepped out for a little bit, we will come back into the process and be able to get through the process much quicker," he said in an interview.

"They (the customers) have the desire to have the plant in operation by 2020 ... So somewhere between 2019 and 2025, we will see one or two units in service in the UK."

GE Hitachi's reactor would compete against French company Areva's EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) and the AP1000 of Toshiba's U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse.

French utility EDF has already decided to build an Areva EPR in Britain by the end of 2017, but other utilities that plan to start up reactors around 2020 could opt for GE Hitachi's design.

"We definitely see our market here in UK," he said. "We are very excited about that ... and we will have meetings this week to really lay out exactly how we get back into the market."