Two Hitachi sites to be acquired for new nuclear development in Britain

UK government-owned Great British Nuclear is purchasing two sites from Hitachi for new nuclear developments.

The two sites are at Wylfa in Ynys Môn/Anglesey and at Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire where the original nuclear plants are being decommissioned and had been intended by Hitachi to build new advanced boiling water reactors.

However, in September 2020 the company withdrew from both projects, apparently over failure to secure the funding support from the government.

Subsequently, they had been mooted for the siting of new EPR reactors but they could also serve for small modular reactors (SMRs) with the advancement of this technology or the emerging advanced modular reactors (AMRs).

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Gwen Parry-Jones, Chief Executive of Great British Nuclear, said the news was a landmark for nuclear development in the UK with the sites having tremendous potential and presenting a significant opportunity for the country and for local communities.

“Each location has a long history of hosting the UK nuclear industry and has experienced the enormous benefits that nuclear power can bring to their local and regional economies. We deeply appreciate Hitachi’s development of these sites and their work to date was one of the reasons why they were so attractive to us.

“We look forward to engaging with each community in what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue.”

The government’s Civil Nuclear Roadmap published in January 2024 sets out plans as part of the drive towards net zero to deploy up to 24GW of new nuclear power by 2050, including large scale reactors, SMRs and AMRs.

Access to nuclear sites is thus critical for achieving this target, with the rapid growth envisaged – of the order of 3-7GW every five years from 2030 to 2044.

Great British Nuclear has reported that these site announcements are the first of a series that it intends to make, with a focus on sites similar to Wylfa and Oldbury first and potentially others that have a legacy of involvement in the UK nuclear industry.

The government is currently consulting on a future approach to nuclear sites which could include non-nuclear sites considered in later phases.

SMR technology selection

Coupled with the site announcement, Great British Nuclear also advised that the six companies in the SMR technology selection process can now enter the tender phase with tenders due by June 2024. Thereafter final tenders will be invited, with the aim of announcing successful bidders later in 2024.

The companies to tender are EDF Energy, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy International LLC, Holtec Britain Limited, NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce SMR and Westinghouse Electric Company UK Limited.

Successful bidders’ technologies will be allocated sites and incorporated into projects, and bidders will receive funding to develop their technology.