Wylfa nuclear power station plans expected to go ahead

Wylfa on Anglesey is expected to be the site for a new nuclear power station, with the decision to be confirmed on Thursday, BBC Wales has been told.

It is thought that the UK government will give the go-ahead for a small modular reactor (SMR).

Ministers have been weighing up whether to choose Anglesey or Oldbury, in Gloucestershire, after signing a £2.5bn partnership with Rolls Royce to build it earlier this year.

It is hoped the plant will provide up to 900 full-time jobs and several thousand more during construction. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has been asked to comment.

It is not known how many small reactors will be built at Wylfa, but the site is believed to be capable of accommodating more than one.

Previously, the UK government department has promised a “golden age of nuclear” which would “protect family finances, boost energy security and create thousands of jobs”.

Wylfa is an old nuclear power station off the coast of Anglesey, in north west Wales.

It was built in the 1960s and first began generating electricity in 1971, employing thousands of workers.

In 2015, Wylfa’s last reactor was closed down and it began the long process of being decommissioned, ending 44 years of operations at the site.

Most nuclear power plants have operating lifespans of 30-40 years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

When Wylfa closed, it was Britain’s oldest.

It was owned and operated by Magnox, which had stopped producing the fuel required to run the plant in 2008, according to the UK government.

Wylfa’s first reactor shut down in 2012 before the site closed completely in 2015.

The Welsh government refused to comment but referred to a previous statement issued on Monday, which said: “Nuclear energy is part of our plan to move away from fossil fuels, using both large-scale and small modular reactors.”

The statement continued: “Wylfa is particularly well placed to attract investment in new nuclear plants because of its nuclear legacy and highly skilled local workforce.

“We continue to work with the UK government to ensure Wales’ potential in this sector is fully realised.”

SMRs are manufactured in a factory in modules before being assembled on-site and can power around a million homes.

There have been calls, including from the US ambassador to the UK, for Wylfa to house a larger gigawatt nuclear power plant, which could power three million homes.

Is this the new nuclear dawn for Wylfa that has proved a false one in the past?

The scrapping of previous plans in 2021 was a blow for jobs on the island, albeit with some local opposition to nuclear power.

There are those, including US ambassador Warren Stephens, who would have preferred a large-scale nuclear power station on the island, but this small modular reactor would nonetheless bring jobs and investment.

And the political context here is key too.

Any announcement by a UK Labour government in the run-up to a much-anticipated budget, with a Senedd election looming and Labour in Wales struggling to hold on to power, will be seized on and analysed.