EDF buys land near UK reactor sites in likely bid to make building easier

摘要

Electricite de France has bought land next to the Wylfa and Hinkley Point nuclear power plants in the UK in an apparent bid to increase its chances of building new nuclear power plants there.rnA spokesman for UK subsidiary EDF Energy confirmed the purchase May 9 but did not say how much land the company had acquired. Media reports said it had bought up several dozen acres around each of the two sites.rnHinkley Point belongs to British Energy, which operates two 655-MW advanced gas-cooled reactor units that started up in 1976. Wylfa belongs to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and hosts NDA's youngest magnox station, two 540-MW units that were connected to the grid in 1971 and are scheduled to close in 2010. The Hinkley Point A magnox, next to the BE site, belongs to the NDA and is being decommissioned. The Hinkley Point B AGRs are scheduled for closure in 2016.