An application for the above project was received by the Planning Inspectorate from Horizon Nuclear Power on 01 June 2018. The application documents for this application will be published on this website in due course. From the day after receipt of the application, the Planning Inspectorate has 28 days to review the application and decide whether or not to accept it. The acceptance decision on this application should therefore be made by Friday 29 June 2018.
Infrastructure Planning Inspectorate 5th June 2018 read more »
ENDS 5th June 2018 read more »
Britain’s move to finance much of a Hitachi nuclear power plant underscores how such projects have grown too costly for the private sector to bear alone, raising further questions about a key component of Japan’s ambitious plans to export infrastructure worldwide. The threat of electricity shortages spurred by factors including aging power plants drove London’s pledge to loan a full 2 trillion yen ($18.2 billion) for the Japanese industrial group’s plan to build two nuclear reactors in Wales, a project slated to cost over 3 trillion yen. The Wylfa saga illustrates how the expense of building nuclear power plants has become a deterrent to their construction. Estimates for the Wales reactors have roughly doubled from the initial outlook, owing to snowballing costs for safety and other provisions. apart from Hitachi’s U.K. project, most of Japan’s overseas nuclear efforts face an uncertain future at best. Plans for new reactors are stalling around the world as countries get caught between the need for energy security and the risks associated with nuclear energy. A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plan to build four reactors in Turkey’s Black Sea coastal city of Sinop has doubled in cost to around 5 trillion yen, owing mainly to additional precautions against earthquakes. Now the project “will not turn a profit unless the Turkish government more than doubles the price at which it buys electricity,” said a source affiliated with Mitsubishi Heavy. Trading house Itochu has pulled out of the business alliance behind the project. Toshiba’s former nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric, which was building four reactors in the U.S., filed for bankruptcHitachi still faces other hurdles on the Wylfa project. Lining up investors is proving difficult on the Japanese side. The U.K. government likely will drive a hard bargain on power purchase prices, having drawn criticism for agreeing to pay far above market rates for electricity from Hinkley Point C, a nuclear power plant being built by France’s EDF and state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group. Clarifying liability for accidents will be another issue.
Nikkei Asian Review 6th June 2018 read more »
Hitachi is seeking billions of pounds from the British government to help build a new nuclear power plant at Anglesey in Wales – but experts say the technology being used is far from proven. Last week Hitachi-rival Toshiba confirmed that they are pulling out of a major nuclear power project in the USA which planned to use a similar reactor type to the one planned for Wylfa. Toshiba said in a press release that the South Texas Project had “ceased to be financially viable” due to prevailing economic conditions. The announcement leaves the UK as one of the last countries looking to build this technology, called the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). Steve Thomas, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Greenwich, said that while there are some small differences between the European reactor led by Hitachi and the abandoned US reactor from Toshiba, the “perception that this is proven technology is not supported by the facts”. Although there are four similar reactors that have been built in Japan, plans for construction elsewhere have seen a series of failures. And because of the long lead-in times for developing and building nuclear reactors, power plants built today may have been designed decades ago, Thomas said “The technology that has been built already is actually 30 year old technology, which has been updated twice over. So the plants that are operating do not really represent what we would build, and also the performance of the plants in terms of their reliability has actually been very poor.”
Unearthed 5th June 2018 read more »
Caroline Lucas: Backing Wylfa Nuclear Power Station Is The Wrong Move At The Wrong Time. Behind its shiny green veneer, this government has overseen the funding stream for clean energy fall to its lowest levels in a decade. The context for this public payout for new nuclear is an energy market that’s making it blindingly obvious that renewables are the future. Solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of new electricity generation, and new technology means that power from the sun, sea and wind, balanced with batteries and interconnection, are able to be the backbone of British energy in the future. Onshore wind – which the Government has all but banned – could have a strike price a whopping £37.50 lower than Wylfa’s. The frequent retort to those of us who oppose nuclear is centred on the need for ‘baseload’ power – but such arguments are increasingly weak. We know that battery technology is coming on leaps and bounds – and even the ex-head of National Grid, Steve Holliday, has said that “the idea of large power stations for baseload is outdated”, and noted that “from a consumer’s point of view, the solar on the rooftop is going to be the baseload”. But it’s not just the government’s skewed financial priorities that make Wylfa the wrong move at the wrong time. At the heart of the problems with nuclear energy is the stark fact that there is still no solution to the nuclear waste problem.
Huffington Post 5th June 2018 read more »
First Minister Carwyn Jones has called on the UK government to work “more closely” with his administration on a new nuclear power station on Anglesey.
BBC 5th June 2018 read more »
Responding to the nuclear statement from the UK Government, announced yesterday (4 June 2018), Haf Elgar, Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said: ‘It’s disappointing that the UK Government is prepared to back the new Wylfa B nuclear power station in Anglesey, while at the same time capping investment in cheaper world leading renewable technologies like offshore wind. Backing and investing in an outdated and expensive technology like nuclear which locks us into dealing with dangerous nuclear waste for centuries to come will not help us bring about the environmental and social changes we need in Wales. The world is on the cusp of a clean energy revolution, yet too much of the UK Government remains stuck in the past. Rather than funding nuclear technology, we should be investing in low-cost solar and wind, energy efficiency and innovating in new clean energy technologies such as tidal lagoons.’
FoE Cymru 5th June 2018 read more »
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) is very disappointed, but not at all surprised, with the announcement by UK Energy Minister Greg Barker to offer £5 billion of taxpayer money to assist with the funding of the Wylfa B new nuclear reactor in Anglesey. Whilst going against years of previous government policy, it also compares unfavourably with the expected lack of Government support of an exciting new renewable energy project in Wales – the proposed development of the Swansea tidal lagoon scheme, and future projects planned in Cardiff Bay and off the north Wales coast. At present this scheme looks to be on a life support machine, though the Government delayed the expected announcement to ditch the project and the thousands of jobs that could be created.
NFLA 5th June 2018 read more »
Engineers back government’s Wylfa nuclear plan.
New Civil Engineer 6th June 2018 read more »
Formal plans have been submitted for the proposed £12bn Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station and the UK government has confirmed it is negotiating with the developer over funding. While environmental and local groups are readying their objections, others on Anglesey are hoping for a boost to the economy. The development could bring 8,500 jobs during the construction phase, and around 875 well-paid permanent jobs when it is up and running. The question is whether local people are ready to make the most of the opportunities which are now looking more likely. Coleg Menai, which is in Llangefni, is responding to that question by expanding its engineering facilities with financial support from Horizon nuclear power, the Japanese-owned company behind Wylfa Newydd.
BBC 5th June 2018 read more »
Negotiations over the proposed Wylfa Newydd plant have started between the UK government and developer Horizon Nuclear Power, and a development consent order has been submitted. What happens next? Big infrastructure projects like this go through a special planning process. The process is overseen by the planning inspectorate and the ultimate decision rests with the UK secretary of state for business, enterprise and industrial strategy, currently Greg Clarke, and not the local council or Welsh Government. The project has already been through the pre-application stage, during which the public was consulted. This week Horizon has submitted a “development consent order” to the planning inspectorate. This is what the timetable could look like: June 2018: The planning inspector now has 28 days to decide whether the application is complete and eligible for acceptance.
BBC 5th June 2018 read more »
The UK government has ended months of uncertainty over the fate of the Wylfa Newydd (“New Wylfa”) nuclear power plant by agreeing to finance the project – contrary to its previous insistence that all new nuclear schemes be privately funded.
Global Construction Review 5th June 2018 read more »
THE GOVERNMENT’S support for the new nuclear power station on Anglesey is ‘a step in the right direction’, according to the country’s largest union. Unite officials say they welcome the news of financial backing for Wylfa Newydd in Cemaes Bay as it could create thousands of jobs during its construction.
North Wales Chronicle 5th June 2018 read more »
Horizon Nuclear Power has submitted its application to build Wylfa Newydd. The UK Government yesterday announced it would consider a direct investment in the plant alongside the developer and Japanese government agencies – giving the project a massive boost. This was welcomed this morning as “fantastic news” by Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Horizon, a subsidiary of Hitachi.
Daily Post 5th June 2018 read more »
Britain may invest directly in a new nuclear power plant it wants built in northern Wales, the country’s business minister said, as it battles to find a cost-effective way to keep its nuclear ambitions alive.
Reuters 5th June 2018 read more »
City AM 5th June 2018 read more »