Wylfa: It is all over for the £20bn project to build a new nuclear power plant on Anglesey

Posted: 28th January 2021

It is all over for the £20bn project to build a new nuclear power plant on
Anglesey, after developers dropped their planning bid. Horizon Nuclear
Power has pulled a request to approve reactor designs at Wylfa, blaming UK
government funding options as one reason. Japanese backers Hitachi pulled
out of the development last September. Another firm has since unveiled
plans for a smaller hybrid nuclear and wind plant on a separate site at
Wylfa. The Development Consent Order (DCO) process, which is the name given
to planning applications for major UK infrastructure projects such as
Wylfa, has been under consideration since June 2018. A decision was due to
be made on the plan by the UK’s business and energy secretary at the end of
April, following a series of requests by Horizon to extend the process
while it held talks with other interested parties. But Horizon has now
written to the Planning Inspectorate and the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, confirming the end of the troubled project.
Its letter said negotiations on the future of Wylfa had been “positive and
encouraging”. However, it added: “They have not, unfortunately, led to any
definitive proposal that would have allowed the transfer to some new
development entity. “In light of this and in the absence of a new funding
policy from HM Government, Hitachi Ltd., has taken the decision to wind-up
Horizon as an active development entity by 31 March 2021. “As a result, we
must now, regretfully, withdraw the application.”

BBC 27th Jan 2021 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55833186