Wylfa in Anglesey is the UK government’s preferred site for the country’s third mega-nuclear power station – after Hinkley and Sizewell – putting North Wales in prime position to benefit from a boost to its economic prosperity and support the UK’s long-term energy security. Its capacity has not been specified but it will be in the 6 GW class to judge by estimates of the projected size of its market.
The government is kick–starting talks with global energy firms to explore building the new power plant, which brings the UK closer to its ambition to strengthen its energy independence by producing up to a quarter of its projected electricity needs from homegrown nuclear power by 2050,.
Wylfa, sitting on the North Wales coast, is ideally-suited to host one given its proximity to cooling water and its nuclear heritage.
Great British Nuclear recently secured Wylfa and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire as 2 possible sites for new nuclear projects. It is the first time the government has acquired land for new nuclear since the 1960s.
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Claire Coutinho, said: “We are powering ahead with the biggest expansion of nuclear energy in 70 years.
Anglesey has a proud nuclear history and it is only right that, once again, it can play a central role in boosting the UK’s energy security.”
To deliver expansion at the scale envisaged obtaining suitable sites will be critical to meeting the UK’s ambition to quadruple nuclear capacity to 24 GW by 2050. This will come from a mix of traditional large-scale power plants and small modular reactors, which can be rolled out more quickly and at scale.
Meanwhile Great British Nuclear aims to announce successful bidders for the small modular reactor competition by the end of this year.
