industry

Hitachi set to scrap £16bn nuclear power station in Wales


Hitachi is expected to scrap plans to build a nuclear power station in Wales, becoming the second firm in two months to abandon a major nuclear project.

The £16bn Wylfa plant on Anglesey was meant to be the next in a line of new nuclear plants behind Hinkley Point C but the Japanese conglomerate has been unable to agree a deal with the UK government.

With costs mounting and nearly £2bn spent on the project, a Hitachi board meeting is anticipated to pull the plug on Thursday. The decision would be a serious blow to the government’s energy strategy and hopes of attracting major investments post-Brexit.

Unions are braced for a cancellation, which would likely see around 400 jobs lost at Hitahci’s UK subsidiary, Horizon, and mean thousands of construction jobs do not materialise.

The death knell for Wylfa also likely spells doom for hopes of a second Hitachi plant at Oldbury in Gloucestershire.

Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

The collapse of the power stations and the Moorside project that Toshiba scrapped in November means the government has a huge hole to fill in the late 2020s and early 2030s.

Together the three power stations would have supplied 15% of electricity demand.

Questions will be raised over whether ministers should redouble their efforts to make the numbers work for nuclear, or pivot to a new strategy that hugely expands the build-out of renewables.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.