The target date for ­licensing the design for the ­Moorside new nuclear plant has been delayed a second time, to March 2017, and the schedule “remains ­challenging”, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said in a regular licensing update. The UK’s nuclear regulator was carrying out a detailed examination of progress in July.

In its previous quarterly update, the regulator complained of delays and poor quality in information provided by Westinghouse, which designed and will build the AP1000 reactor at Moorside in Cumbria.