Hitachi May Scuttle UK Nuclear Project
Hitachi may cancel its plans for a $ 20.5 billion nuclear power project in Wales, according to several media reports from the UK and Japan. The Japanese company is expected to determine the fate of the project at a board meeting this week.
The Guardian newspaper was among those that in recent days reported an impasse in talks among Hitachi, UK officials, and the Japanese government regarding financing for the plant would likely lead to a cancellation. Hitachi already has spent about $ 2.6 billion on the project.
The Nikkei Asian Review on Jan. 11 reported that Hitachi’s board this week would likely move to suspend all work on the Wylfa Newydd plant. The power station on Anglesey island, on the north coast of Wales, was first proposed in 2009 as a 3,000-MW plant with two advanced boiling water reactors. Horizon Nuclear Power, a joint venture of E.ON and RWE, was behind the project. Hitachi bought the venture in 2012.
Two earlier 490-MW reactors at the Wylfa site, known as Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, became operational in 1971.…