U.K. announces new site for mega-nuclear power station

May 28, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News

The United Kingdom has announced a northern Wales site as its preferred location for a third mega-nuclear power station as the nation aims to support long-term energy security.

Following its plans to build nuclear facilities at Hinkley in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk, both in England, U.K. officials hope to revive the nuclear history of Wylfa, in Wales, and bring thousands of jobs and major investment to the area. The government is kickstarting talks with global energy firms in hopes of building a nuclear plant in Wylfa that could provide enough energy to power 6 million homes for 60 years.

GBN to buy sites for new nuclear

March 12, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
Hitachi pulled out of plans for a nuclear project at Wylfa in 2020 (Image: Horizon Nuclear Power)

Great Britain announced last week that it will purchase land at two nuclear sites from Hitachi for £160 million ($203 million).

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the deal for the sites—Wylfa in northern Wales and Oldbury-on-Severn in southwestern England—during the annual budget speech to Parliament. Under Hitachi’s ownership, the land was prepped for developing a pair of advanced boiling water reactor units, but those plans were suspended in 2019 due to economic constraints.

Bechtel, Toshiba partner on Polish nuclear project

June 15, 2022, 9:30AMNuclear News
Bechtel’s Ahmet Tokpinar (right) at the MOU signing ceremony with Toshiba executives Yuki Arima (left) and Kentaro Takagi. (Photo: Bechtel)

Engineering, construction, and project management firm Bechtel Corporation last week announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Toshiba America Energy Systems and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions to pursue a civil nuclear power plant project in Poland.

Wylfa Newydd new-build project scrapped

February 1, 2021, 7:00AMNuclear News

The loosely connected plug keeping the United Kingdom’s Wylfa Newydd nuclear new-build project alive has been officially pulled.

Horizon Nuclear Power, the Hitachi subsidiary that remained involved in the project following its parent company’s pullout in September 2020, has formally withdrawn its application for a development consent order (DCO) regarding the proposed nuclear plant. (DCOs are required for large infrastructure projects in the United Kingdom to move forward.) The facility was to be sited adjacent to the decommissioned Wylfa reactors, on the island of Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales.

A decision on the DCO application, under review by the U.K. Planning Inspectorate since 2018, was expected by April 30, after a series of successful requests for extensions from Duncan Hawthorne, Horizon’s chief executive officer, who had cited “discussions with third parties that have expressed an interest in progressing with the development” of Wylfa Newydd.

Hitachi sunsets Horizon

January 12, 2021, 11:59AMANS Nuclear Cafe

Hitachi Ltd. plans to close Horizon Nuclear Power, its U.K. nuclear development subsidiary, early this spring, according to weekend news reports. Horizon is the firm behind Wylfa Newydd, the proposed nuclear new-build project in Wales.

On January 10, citing a story that appeared earlier that day in The Times, Yahoo reported that Hitachi will close Horizon by March 31—a move, Yahoo said, that “could scupper a sale of the [Wylfa Newydd] site, which has attracted interest from bidders, including a U.S. consortium of Bechtel, Southern Company, and Westinghouse, and dent [the] U.K.’s clean energy goals.”

However, a January 11 item on a Welsh online news service stated, “It is understood that if a sale of the site is not secured before Horizon shuts, the sale process will be continued by Hitachi.”

Decision on Welsh nuclear project delayed again

January 6, 2021, 9:29AMNuclear News

Artist's concept of the Wylfa Newydd project. Image: Horizon Nuclear Power

The U.K. government has agreed to delay until April 30 its decision regarding the issuance of a development consent order (DCO) for, the nuclear new-build project proposed for the island of Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales. (DCOs are required for large infrastructure projects in the United Kingdom to move forward.)


Deadline for proposed Welsh plant extended; third-party interest expressed

October 7, 2020, 12:04PMNuclear News

Artist's concept of the Wylfa Newydd project. Image: Horizon Nuclear Power

Hopes for the construction of a two-unit nuclear power station in Wales—dashed some three weeks ago when Hitachi Ltd. officially announced its withdrawal from the proposed Wylfa Newydd plant—rose again slightly last week when the United Kingdom’s Planning Inspectorate agreed to delay its decision regarding issuance of a development consent order (DCO) for the project.

The original deadline for the decision had been September 30, but following the receipt of a pair of letters from Horizon Nuclear Power—the Hitachi subsidiary in charge of the project—the inspectorate consented to a December 31 extension.

Hitachi pulls plug on Wales nuclear build project

September 16, 2020, 3:00PMNuclear News

Artist's concept of the Wylfa Newydd project. Image: Horizon Nuclear Power

Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd. today announced that it is withdrawing from the currently suspended Wylfa Newydd nuclear-build project in northwestern Wales. The announcement dashes the hopes raised last month by reports that Horizon Nuclear Power, the Hitachi subsidiary in charge of the project, was in talks with the U.K. government regarding a possible resuscitation.

Hitachi had put the project on hold some 20 months ago, and in today’s announcement the company cited the length of the suspension and the COVID-19 investment environment as factors in its decision.