Copeland MP Jamie Reed is putting pressure on the Government to build a second Mox plant at Sellafield to deal with the UK's plutonium stockpile.

Mox 2 would create 5,000 jobs during the construction phase and 1,000 permanent jobs once operational.

Mr Reed has secured a Westminster Hall Debate on Tuesday to raise the issue of dealing with the UK's 140-tonne plutonium stockpile – the largest civil reactor grade plutonium stockpile anywhere in the world – which is stored at Sellafield.

The Labour MP, who is a member of the energy and climate change select committee, and a vice chairman of the all-party Parliamentary group on nuclear, will call on the Government to set a timeline to use the plutonium as nuclear fuel.

He said: “Government must take action now to plan for an efficient and effective way to dispose of our nuclear stockpile.

“I have approximately 140 tonnes of plutonium sitting in my constituency and there’s no plan for it.

"It’s not a waste, it’s an asset and the longer we leave it, the harder it becomes to do anything with."

He added: “By utilising the stockpile as a fuel rather than waste, we will help to meet our non-proliferation objectives, secure our energy supplies, and fight climate change.”

The original Sellafield Mox plant shut in 2011 and yielded only 13.8 tonnes of Mox fuel over its nine-year life, well short of the 120 tonnes predicted.

But Ministers are considering building a second Mox plant as the best way of dealing with the plutonium, which is highly toxic and would otherwise have to be stored for hundreds of thousands of years.

Mox 2 would mix high-grade plutonium with uranium to make a fuel that could be used at the Sizewell reactor in Suffolk and by the planned reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, and Moorside, Sellafield.

However, not all the plutonium stored at Sellafield is suitable for this.

Another option, put forward by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, is to construct a so-called 'fast reactor' that uses lower-grade plutonium as fuel.

It says Sellafield is the obvious place for this, because the plutonium is already stored there.

A report by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, published in 2014, says that reuse of plutonium, as either Mox fuel or in a fast reactor, remains the best option for dealing with the stockpile.

But it adds: “There is insufficient understanding of the options to confidently move into implementation and significant further work must be undertaken.”