View on the ground

Wylfa

Wylfa is one of the eleven sites that could potentially host a new nuclear station included on the Government’s list published on 15th April 2009.

Site of two operating Magnox reactors, on the Island of Anglesey. The reactors are owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and operated on their behalf by Energy Solutions. They are expected to close at the end of 2010.

EDF Energy had been buying up land around Wylfa to give the company the option to build a new reactor there if it failed in its bid to buy British Energy. Now that the sale of British Energy to EDF has gone through it has sold its land along with land the NDA owned.A consortium of Germany’s E.On and RWE was successful in its bid to buy the site.
The consortium also bought land at Oldbury in Gloucestershire. E.On and RWE say they will now push ahead with plans to develop at least 6GW of new nuclear capacity in the UK.

RWE held two drop in information sessions for the public in early June. RWE npower has a grid connection offer for Anglesey, which provides it with the rights to feed 3.6GW of electricity into the national grid.
 

Plaid Cymru Controversy

Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas - current Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales, member of the House of Lords, and former leader of Plaid Cymru – has publicly backed a new reactor for Wylfa on Anglesey, in contrast to Plaid Cymru's stance on nuclear power.

The website, Politics Cymru, also said Wylfa was causing a headache for the current leader of Plaid Cymru in the National Assembly, Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, who is also Deputy First Minister and Minister for Economy and Transport in the Welsh Assembly Government. His constituency is Ynys Mon (Anglesey).

With concern about unemployment on the island running high after the announcement the aluminium smelter would close at the end of September 2009 with the loss of another 250 jobs and the planned closure of the existing Wylfa reactor due next year, Politics Cymru says Plaid is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. The history of the plant, which is a major electricity user, has been closely tied in to an energy deal with the nuclear power station at Wylfa, but the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said European Competition rules would not allow them to extend the deal.

It had been hoped, now that the life of Wylfa has been extended by nine months to the end of 2010 that the cheap electricity deal could also be extended, and Anglesey Aluminium was looking at the possibility of building a biomass plant to provide its own electricity. This feasibility study will continue.

Rhian Medi, a Plaid Cymru councillor on Ynys Môn county council, speaking on a BBC Radio Cymru phone-in on 17th September, defended the party's policy of opposing new nuclear build, but the Plaid leader on the council Cllr, Bob Parry supported Dafydd Elis Thomas’ stance. However, several Plaid members backed Cllr Medi, including Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid AM for East Carmarthen and Dinefwr, and by Mabon ap Gwynfor, a young Plaid candidate and grandson of Gwynfor Evans, ex Plaid President and its first MP. Clearly there is a lot of unease in the Party about pro-nuclear comments by Dafydd Elis Thomas and Ieuan Wyn Jones.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Environment Minister, Labour AM Jane Davidson, has supported calls for a public inquiry into whether new reactors are justified under EU Justification Regulations.

Local Group: People Against Wylfa B

Last Updated 24 September 2009

This section of the website has been developed thanks to funding from Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation.