Welsh Nuclear Plant Gets Two-Year Lifeline

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The Wylfa nuclear power plant in Wales has been granted a stay of execution and will continue to operate for two years.

The plant, which is operated by Magnox North (Warrington, England) on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), was scheduled to close down this December. The plant now will be allowed to continue generating electricity until 2012, according to the U.K.'s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) Nuclear Directorate. Wylfa, which is located on the island of Anglesey in North Wales, has a generating capacity of 980 megawatts (MW) from its two 490-MW Magnox nuclear reactors, which began operating in January 1961.

"I applaud the work done by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and by Magnox North's management and staff at Wylfa, which has enabled the power station to continue generating low-carbon electricity," said Charles Hendry, the Minister of State for Energy. "Extending generation for a further two years is very welcome news. The additional income it generates will make a significant contribution to meeting the costs of decommissioning other legacy sites, reducing the bill for the taxpayer."

The extension will generate more than 144 million euros ($200 million) in additional revenue for the NDA, which will be used to fund the decommissioning of the U.K.'s older nuclear plants.

Earlier this month, Wylfa Reactor 2 was given the green light by HSE Nuclear Directorate to restart after a scheduled outage that began in April this year. For additional information, see October 5, 2010, article - Sizewell B Nuclear Power Plant Back Online.

Wylfa will be home to the U.K.'s first new nuclear power plant in decades, as joint venture company Horizon Nuclear Power (Gloucester, England) starts preliminary work. Owned by German energy giants RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) and E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany), Horizon will build the plant at a site adjacent to the existing plant, which will have a generating capacity of up to 3,300 MW when it is commissioned in 2020. For additional information, see March 31, 2010, article - Wales Chosen for UK's First New Nuclear Power Station. Horizon began awarding preliminary work contracts for the nuclear plant in August. For additional information, see August 4, 2010, article - Preliminary Work Begins on U.K. Nuclear Plant.

Nick Gore, Wylfa site director, said: "I'm absolutely delighted with the news. It is a reflection of the hard work put in by our experienced staff in satisfying the requirements of the periodic safety review and very ably supported by our record of excellence in safety, operations and maintenance. This is all down to the quality of our staff on site, and with our plant and equipment in excellent condition, we can look forward to the future in confidence."

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