The option for a plot north of Sellafield was acquired in October 2009 for  million by a joint venture formed by Iberdrola, GdF-Suez, and Scottish & Southern, which named itself NuGeneration (NuGen) in November 2010. The future plant was named Moorside in December 2011. Toshiba, as owner of Westinghouse, took over Iberdrola's stake in NuGen in 2013, allowing the completion of the generic design assessment (GDA) for the AP1000 design by UK regulators. The GDA required a customer and specific site to finalise engineering details.
