French Chinese Wylfa B Bid Withdraws

by David Phillips
(North Wales)

build wylfa b

build wylfa b

A French-Chinese consortium bidding to build and operate Wylfa B on Anglesey through Horizon Nuclear Power has withdrawn from the process.


With the deadline now passed it will not be possible for the above consortium between Areva, the French nuclear firm with its EPR reactor design and Chinese government-backed Guangdong Nuclear Power Group,to re-enter the race at a later stage.

There are two other groups hoping to become the preferred bidder to build both Wylfa B and a new station at Oldbury in Gloucestershire.

One consortium is led by Japanese firm Hitachi, while the other is made up of Westinghouse and Chinese firm, State Nuclear Power Tech Corp.

The bidding process continues until a preferred bidder is selected for Horizon Nuclear Power, and the estimate is for a decision to be made by Christmas.

A key issue will be the reactor design, and significantly Westinghouse's AP1000 model has already received an interim Design Confirmation Acceptance (DAC) (or approval)from the Office of Nuclear Regulation.

Against the background of the Fukushima incident, in Step 4 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA), the Office of Nuclear Regulation said they had "decided to issue an interim Design Acceptance Confirmation (DAC) for the AP1000 reactor."

The statement in Step 4 aslo noted that a "major milestone has been achieved" and that it was only other issues that had to be dealt with as part of the overall GDA.

On the other hand, should the Hitachi-led consortium be chosen as the preferred bidder, it would have to go through the assessment for its own reactor design.

With increasing concerns about the retirement of the UK's nuclear plants, with all production ceasing by the mid-2030's, the need to make progress on new build is urgent.

The prospects for Wylfa B have swung up and down regualrly over recent years as various groups are linked with the new build project. Let's hope we can enter a more certain period where a bidder with a strong capital base and rock-solid reactor design can make progress to completion, so we can generate low carbon electricity from Anglesey.

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Oct 09, 2012
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National Grid Proposals - Anglesey
by: Anonymous

Just received my copy of National Grids long-term plan to get power from power station to the main areas of demand.

It means building larger pylons across Anglesey to Bangor and across North Wales to main cities in North West and Midlands.

The anticipated costs are almost as much as building the power station!

For long term strategy, it seems sensible to build power stations nearer the cities rather than far away in Scotland or North Wales.

Surely the wind farms off the coast of NorthWales plus the Dinorwig Hydro Electric station already provides sufficient power for local needs and using existing power lines.

This would save the cost of proposed "upgrading" of power supplies.

The present power station at Fiddlers Ferry would seem to be the ideal position so the construction of a new nuclear power station in around the same area would also seem sensible.

Oct 04, 2012
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get it built
by: Anonymous

we need to get the economy moving, get this power station built.

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