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Wylfa Newydd / Decision On UK Nuclear Plant Put Back Until September

By David Dalton
2 April 2020

Decision On UK Nuclear Plant Put Back Until September
A computer-generated image of the proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear station.
A planning decision for two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactors at the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station on the island of Anglesey in north Wales will be made in September 2020, almost a year later than expected, the UK government has confirmed.

The project was suspended in January 2019 after Hitachi failed to reach a funding deal with the UK government under Theresa May.

But in a move towards restarting the project, the government was expected to grant vital planning permission - known as a development consent order - to construct the two units, the cost of which has been put at £12bn.

In October 2019 the business secretary at the time, Andrea Leadsom, deferred a planning decision, saying she wanted more information on environmental and other impacts.

A statement by Anglesey Council’s planning inspectorate on 1 April noted that the deadline for the decision on the development consent order was 23 October 2019 but that deadline was reset to 31 March 2020 to allow further information in respect of environmental effects and other outstanding issues to be provided and considered.

“Following initial analysis of the further information which has now been provided, the secretary of state [Alok Sharma] has concluded that an additional period of time is required in order to complete his consideration in respect of environmental effects and other issues which were outstanding following the examination.

“The secretary of state has decided to reset the statutory deadline for this application to 30 September 2020.”

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