Hitachi's UK-based subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power has selected the engineering firm Bechtel to manage the construction of the £16bn (about €18bn) Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project in Anglesey in North Wales (United Kingdom). Bechtel will lead the contractual and commercial interface with suppliers on behalf of Horizon Nuclear Power.
The Wylfa Newydd project will comprise up to four Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) with a combined capacity of around 5,400 MW on the site of the former 980 MW Wylfa nuclear power plant in May 2016. Construction is expected to start in 2020 and the first unit should be operating in the first half of the 2020s.
The project was endorsed by the British Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in December 2017. So far, the guaranteed power price from the plant is expected to reach approximately £75-£77/MWh (€85.6-€87.9/MWh). The British government is considering taking a £5bn (€5.7bn) direct stake in the project, which is facing pressure from alternatives such as solar and wind power.