Wylfa in Anglesey is the Government's preferred site for a large-scale gigawatt nuclear power plant.

The Government is in talks with global energy firms to explore building the new power plant, as it seeks to bring the UK closer to its ambition for up to a quarter of its projected electricity needs to come from homegrown nuclear power by 2050.

Great British Nuclear, tasked with delivering the world’s fastest small modular reactor competition, recently secured Wylfa and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire as two possible sites for new nuclear projects. It was the first time the government acquired land for new nuclear since the 1960s.

The Government is committed to the biggest expansion to nuclear power in 70 years and suitable sites will be critical to meet ambitions to quadruple nuclear capacity by up to 24GW by 2050. This will come from a mix of traditional large-scale power plants and small modular reactors, which can be rolled out more quickly and at scale.

Meanwhile Great British Nuclear aims to announce successful bidders for the small modular reactor competition by the end of this year. Rolls-Royce recently signed a £15m deal with Sheffield University to test SMR manufacturing techniques and create the first working prototypes of SMR modules at the university’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.

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