British government and KEPCO: new talks over Wylfa nuclear power plant

South Korean company KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) is interested in building a new nuclear power plant at the Wylfa site. The British government is therefore expected to meet its South Korean counterparts in the coming days, this time at ministerial level, the Financial Times reported. The site, on the island of Anglesey in north-west Wales, was previously home to a nuclear power plant dating from the 1960s. It ceased operations in 2015, and efforts to revive the site have followed since.

The Wylfa nuclear power plant began operating in 1971, with two Magnox reactors, each with an installed capacity of 490 MW, generating electricity. After decades in operation, plans began to take shape for a successor, a project called Wylfa Newydd. The project was effectively in the hands of Japan's Hitachi, which owned it and was also due to supply the new reactors.

However, it never went ahead, as Hitachi abandoned the project in 2019. The company said the project would have been economically unviable for a private company. The British government therefore began negotiations to buy the sites owned by Hitachi, reaching an agreement in March this year. The total transaction amounted to £160 million.

The acquisition goes hand in hand with the British plan to quadruple installed nuclear capacity to 24 GW, which could include cooperation with South Korea's largest power company. Talks are currently at an early stage, but KEPCO can be expected to be keenly interested in the prestigious project. Last autumn, a South Korean delegation led by its CEO visited the site to explore opportunities in the British market.

The question remains whether this will be a “traditional” large nuclear power plant or whether the project will be based on small modular reactors. South Korean state-owned utility KEPCO could draw on its recent megaproject, the Barakah nuclear power plant, where it installed its own technology, the APR-1400 reactor.

Either way, the decision will rest with the revived body Great British Nuclear, which, as a government-owned company, has the deciding vote on the direction of British energy policy.