Wylfa clear-up plan is revealed

Monday, September 8, 2008

DETAILED plans for how dangerous radioactive waste will be removed from Wylfa nuclear power station have been handed to health and safety officials.

An application for permission to decommission the Anglesey plant has been lodged with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

It brings a step closer the planned closure of the major island employer in 2010.

A public consultation now under way.

A Magnox Electric spokesman said it paves the way for decommissioning of Wylfa in 2012, after defuelling finishes.

A care and maintenance programme will then be undertaken between 2025 and 2116 with final site clearance carried out between 2116 and 2125, when the process ends.

An Environmental Statement (ES), a written report on the environmental impact of the project, have also been lodged with the HSE.

“The aim is to clear hazards from the site systematically and progressively, focusing on the most significant first,” said Magnox.

The station, which opened in 1971, is due to stop generation of electricity in 2010.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have mounted a longstanding campaign to close the station.

Pawb (People against Wylfa B) spokesman Dylan Morgan said the statement would be considered in detail. He said: “The work must be done as carefully and thoroughly as possible and as safely as possible. We will be insisting this is done in our response to this document.”

Anglesey Council chiefs are anxious to see a new power station, Wylfa B, to protect power jobs at the site and at the aluminium smelter at Anglesey Aluminium on Holyhead, which uses electricity generated by the twin nuclear reactors.

They fear the closure of Wylfa would see the total loss of 1,500 jobs.

French power company EDF confirmed this year it has bought land next to Wylfa to invest in a new generation of nuclear plants in the UK.

The Wylfa Environmental Statement can be viewed at libraries in Amlwch, Cemaes Bay, Holyhead, Llangefni, Bangor and Caernarfon as well as the HSE office in Wrexham.

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