Wylfa nuclear power station

Wylfa Nuclear Power Station
Wylfa Nuclear Power Station
Country	Wales, United Kingdom
Location	Anglesey
Coordinates	53°25′01″N 4°28′59″W / 53.417°N 4.483°W
Status	Decommissioning in progress
Construction began	1963
Commission date	1971
Decommission date	2015
Owner(s)	Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Operator(s)	Magnox Ltd
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	Magnox
Reactor supplier	The Nuclear Power Group
Power generation
Units decommissioned	2 x 490 MW
Nameplate capacity	1,190 MW;
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons
	[edit on Wikidata]

Wylfa nuclear power station (Welsh: Atomfa'r Wylfa) is a Magnox nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning. Wylfa is situated west of Cemaes Bay on the island of Anglesey, off the northwestern coast of Wales. Construction of the two 490 MW nuclear reactors, known as Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, began in 1963. They became operational in 1971. Wylfa was located on the coast because seawater was used as a coolant.

In 2012, Reactor 2 was shut down. Reactor 1 was switched off on 30 December 2015, ending 44 years of operation at the site.

Wylfa Newydd (literally New Wylfa) was a proposed new nuclear station on a site adjacent to the old plant. An application to build two advanced boiling water reactors was submitted by Horizon Nuclear Power to the Office of Nuclear Regulation on 4 April 2017. In September 2020, parent company Hitachi withdrew from the project. In 2022, the UK Government expressed interest in the construction of a possible set of two EPR reactors on the site, and in 2024 announced it would purchase the site from Hitachi.