The government is approaching international nuclear builders & operators for another try at reviving nuclear generation on the island. Britain purchased the site this year from Hitachi for £160 million, after the Japanese firm in September 2020 cut its losses of £2 billion, incurred over its twelve years of attempting revive nuclear generation on the island.

Hitachi had intended to build two advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs), with a combined capacity of 3GW on a site to the south of the existing Wylfa complex. The company’s plans foundered for reasons including concerns about a Contracts for Difference funding model of their venture.

in December 2015 the second of Wylfa’s two earlier Magnox reactors, each capable of 0.49GW, were shut down, forty four years after the plant was first commissioned.

This morning’s statement by energy secretary Claire Coutinho hails the Wylfa decision as part of the Sunak government’s biggest expansion of British nuclear generation for 70 years. Quadrupling the source before mid century by up to 24GW will be achieved through a mix of large-scale traditional plants and small modular reactors, which are quicker to build, said the minister.

A revived Wylfa will fall in the same supra-3GW capacity bracket as Hinkley Point C and the planned Sizewell C.

The government’s development entity Great British Nuclear, tasked with delivering the world’s fastest small modular reactor competition, recently secured Wylfa and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire as possible sites for new nuclear projects. It was the first time the government acquired land for nuclear since the 1960s.

“Anglesey has a proud nuclear history. It’s only right that, once again, it can play a central role in boosting the UK’s energy security”, Coutinho declared.  Wylfa would contribute clean reliable power to millions of homes, she claimed, adding that it could create thousands of well-paid jobs.

Her cabinet colleagu Welsh secretary David TC Davies added: “Alongside the revival of Wylfa, recent measures we have announced include a freeport for Anglesey, £17 million in Levelling Up money for Holyhead and electrification of the North Wales rail line. These show that the UK government continues to deliver for Anglesey and for North Wales”.

Sam Richards, CEO of regeneration lobbyists Britain Remade, added: “News that Wylfa is a preferred site for a new gigawatt scale power station will come as a huge relief to local islanders who are crying out for a new reactor”.

“It’s critical that the planning red-tape that has slowed down building Hinkley Point C, and added huge costs, are quickly addressed by government.

“With the announcement of new nuclear at Wylfa, the case for a third Menai crossing is stronger than ever. The governments in Westminster and Cardiff should now work together to deliver.”

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On Humberside, SSE Thermal and Equinor’s Keadby 3 Carbon Capture power station has become the nation’s first power CCS project to receive planning permission.

Acting on the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation, D-BEIS secretary of state Grant Shapps on Wednesday granted Keadby 3 its development consent order, following external consultation.

Rated after commissioning at 910MW, Keadby 3 is earmarked to grab and store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 a year.  That’s a minimum 5 per cent of the UK government’s target to be achieved by 2030.

Low-carbon amps could be flowing as early as 2027, assuming success in the Whitehall’s cluster sequencing process for CCUS leads to a green light from financiers.

The North Lincolnshire plant is now at the due diligence stage of D-BEIS’s Cluster Sequencing Process.  Government subsidy is the prize, allowing the venture’s Scottish & Norwegian backers to deploy cutting edge carbon capture technology. 

Plumbing into Humberside’s shared CO2 and hydrogen pipelines is the goal, part of interlinked proposals envisioned in the Zero Carbon Humber and East Coast Cluster plans.

A contract for Keadby 3’s initial engineering design has been awarded to a consortium of Aker Solutions, Siemens Energy and Altrad Babcock. A unit of the first is sharpening engineering pencils over the best technology for carbon capture & storage.   Keadby 3 will replace Keadby 1, pictured above.

Going beyond simple capture and storage, SSE Thermal and Equinor are also planning as Keadby 3’s neighbour one of the world’s first large-scale power stations run solely on hydrogen.  

The pair’s CCUS power station at Peterhead, Scotland, will embrace similar technology.

Meanwhile in south Wales, SIMEC-Atlantis Energy’s colossal 230MW / 460MWh battery storage venture has received the go-ahead from Newport City, the firm confirmed to investors this morning.

Among Britain’s most ample amp accommodations, final finance terms for the venture are due to be decided before April.

A handily huge 230MW grid connection hub is the site’s jewel.  The engineers see it as a springboard to international earnings made from converting the world’s coal incinerators for clean combustion.

Simec Atlantis is splitting Uksmouth’s conversion into two 110MW projects.  The firm has been working on the complex project alongside partners Energy Optimisation Solutions and financiers Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. The trio’s special purpose vehicle Uskmouth Energy Storage will own and operate the plant.

The conversion’s voyage through Welsh governmental processes has at times been storm-tossed.  In October 2021, Simec-Atlantis accused the devolved administration in Cardiff of “putting at risk a project that will produce negative emissions, create hundreds of jobs and deliver hundreds of millions of pounds in investment”

“While SAE will not progress the Uskmouth Conversion Project”,  the company clarifies on its website, “the need to repurpose coal fired stations has never been more important in order to reduce emissions, enhancing energy security, and reducing the waste being sent to landfill and polluting our oceans.

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