Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station
Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station, also known as Wylfa B, is a proposed project to construct a 2,700 MWe nuclear power station with two ABWR reactors in Anglesey, Wales. The project is owned by Horizon Nuclear Power which is a subsidiary of Hitachi, who are also the main shareholder in Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, the supplier of the reactors for the project.
, the project is stalled as Horizon looks for a method of funding the project.
History
In 2008, the government decided that new nuclear sites should be constructed on existing sites to replace the UK's ageing fleet of reactors. In 2010, the government revealed that Wylfa was one of the 8 sites that it intended to allow the development to occur at.Horizon Nuclear Power was set up on 14 January 2009 by E.ON UK and RWE npower as a 50:50 joint venture, with the aim to develop at least 6 GW of nuclear capacity in the UK. Following the establishment of the joint venture, the UK government set up an auction for three of the sites, Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell. The company announced that it had put forward plans to develop new nuclear generation facilities at all three of the sites. The UK government announced that Horizon won the auction at two of the sites, Wylfa and Oldbury, whilst EDF Energy had won the third site, Bradwell.
Following separate strategic reviews, RWE and EON decided not to continue with the development of new nuclear power stations in the UK through their Horizon joint venture, citing the cost of Germany's nuclear phase-out as one of the reasons for their decision. The partners said they will seek buyers for Horizon to allow the projects to continue. Following this, Hitachi bought Horizon for £700 million.
Hitachi announced its intention to construct two to three Advanced boiling water reactors at the site and submitted its design to the Office for Nuclear Regulation for a generic design assessment, in order to get approval for the reactor to operate in the UK. The ABWR design finished the UK Generic design assessment in December 2017.
Hitachi intended to commence construction on the site from 2014, with major construction works to commence during 2018–2019; however, as of 2020, due to many delays in the project, mainly due to funding disputes, construction has not commenced as the project has yet to find financial backing from the UK government.
Timeline
| Stage | Status | Date Completed | Notes |
| Statement of community consultation | Completed | May 2017 | |
| Stage 1 consultation | Completed | 8 December 2014 | |
| Updated statement of community consultation | Completed | January 2016 | |
| Stage 2 consultation | Completed | 25 October 2016 | |
| Stage 3 consultation | Completed | 22 June 2017 | |
| Application submission | In Progress | June 2018 | |
| Decision | Not Yet Started | - | |
| Construction | Not Yet Started | - | |
| Operation | Not Yet Sarted | - |
Construction
Design
Wylfa Newydd is expected to use two advanced boiling water reactors that have an output of around 1350 MW each to provide a combined output of 2700 MW. The ABWR design was submitted to the Office for Nuclear Regulation in the UK so that it could undergo the Generic design assessment in 2013, once Hitachi had signalled that it intended to continue the developing the site. The ABWR design finished the UK Generic design assessment in December 2017.Lifetime stages
Stage One: Site Preparation and Clearance- Clearing the site and preparing it for development.
Stage Two: Main Construction
- Constructing the Power Station, including the nuclear reactor buildings and the majority of supporting buildings, facilities, plant and structures, the MOLF, and the two breakwaters.
Stage Three: Commissioning and Operation
- Testing and operating the Power Station as well as the construction of radioactive waste storage facilities.
Stage Four: Decommissioning
- Converting the site into an end state to be agreed with the relevant authorities and regulators.
Funding
Possible cancellation of the project
In January 2019, it was reported that the nuclear plant’s funding was questionable, after £2 billion had been spent on the project. The reports noted that a dispute between the proposed plant’s builder Hitachi and the UK government over funding had thrown the future construction into doubt, and that an upcoming meeting later in the month would be the location of an announcement regarding the plant’s future.On 17 January 2019, Hitachi announced that it would "suspend" work on the Wylfa project. Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Horizon Nuclear Power, said: "...we will take steps to reduce our presence but keep the option to resume development in future". The UK government had been expected to grant a development consent order in a move to restart the project, but subsequently deferred the decision deadline until 31 March 2020, which was then pushed further back to 30 September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesperson for Hitachi said that they were disappointed in the delay, but that it was "not unexpected given the current national circumstances"
Criticism and organised opposition
The opposition to Wylfa Newyyd is mainly led by the local group, People Against Wylfa-B,.The group's main opposition to the development are:
- The funding would be better spent on renewable energy
- The funding will be a waste of tax payers money, as German firms EON and RWE could not find funding for the project
- The cost of electricity would increase as a result of the construction as the build would be subsidised
- The health risks are too great as the site will be radioactive for years to come and the number of cancer rates will increase
- The economic benefits to the area are minimal