'Momentous step' as mini nuclear power plant is confirmed for N.Wales site

THE UK Government has confirmed that Anglesey will host the UK's first small modular nuclear reactors in a move that will create thousands of jobs.

- By OWEN HUGHES

The Daily Post reported yesterday that the Government was expected to announce this week that Wylfa near Cemaes had been selected for a new generation of nuclear plant.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now confirmed this with an initial three mini-reactors (generating around 1.4 gigawatts) earmarked for the island site and the potential for eight in total.

It would be the UK’s first small modular reactor nuclear power plant with publicly-owned Great British Energy-Nuclear leading on the project, using reactors designed by Rolls-Royce, subject to contracts being signed.

UK Government is committing around £2.5bn which will be split between funding towards the development of the SMR design and getting all the planning consents and environmental permissions in place on the site. Work could start next year on preparing the site and power generation could begin in the mid 2030s.

It is hoped private sector backing will come in alongside public money for the construction phase and it is expected the funding model will see the bill picked up by electricity payers over the coming decades.

The final total price has not yet been announced with work still needed on developing those plans.

The development could start in the 2030s and at peak construction there would be around 3,000 people employed locally. There would then be “many hundreds” of roles in the long term, with the plant tipped to last 60 to 100 years.

The previous nuclear plant stopped generating in 2015 and the last attempt to develop a large-scale nuclear project collapsed after the failure of Hitachi to reach a funding agreement with the last UK government.