Hitachi abandons UK nuclear power station projects

Horizon Nuclear Electricity will prevent developing two Uk initiatives pursuing a decision by Hitachi to pull out of the scheme.

The decision to abandon constructing new power stations at Wylfa Newydd on Anglesey and at Oldbury on Severn, in South Gloucestershire, discounts a massive blow to the nuclear marketplace and hopes of making hundreds of new positions.

Hitachi announced it will finish business enterprise functions on the nuclear power plant design challenge at Wylfa, which was suspended in January 2019.

The Japanese business said: “Hitachi made this decision supplied that twenty months have handed considering that the suspension, and the expense surroundings has come to be progressively serious due to the impact of Covid-19.”

Horizon chief government Duncan Hawthorne said: “I fully grasp this announcement will be disappointing for our lots of supporters who had hoped to see our challenge by means of to completion. Wylfa Newydd on Anglesey and Oldbury on Severn are very desirable sites for new nuclear develop. We will do our utmost to facilitate the potential clients for growth.”

Tom Greatrex, chief government of the Nuclear Market Association, said: “Wylfa is most likely the best web page in the Uk for new nuclear potential, and has robust community and stakeholder assistance.

“It is imperative that a way forward is uncovered for the web page, to deliver hundreds of positions, hundreds of apprenticeships and tens of millions of pounds of expense into an economic raise for the place when providing safe, dependable and lower-carbon power to underpin the UK’s changeover to web zero.”