E.ON eyes new Oldbury nuke

摘要

Whilst all the media attention has been concentrating on British Energy and die possible takeover by EDF or partial merger with Centrica, E.ON UK has quiedy secured grid capacity for a new nuclear power station on the Oldbury site in Gloucestershire. Oldbury is adjacent to the River Severn, from where cooling water would be abstracted. The UK subsidiary of the German giant has signed an agreement with National Grid for grid connection capacity of 1.600MW at Oldbury. The E.ON announcement came as The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), that owns the sites of the remaining and former Magnox nuclear stations, announced that it would auction three sites following discussions with several potential bidders. The NDA sites include Oldbury where the two 230MW Magnox reactors are due to close this year, Wylfa in Anglesey where the 1,080MW Magnox station is due to close in 2010, and Bradwell in Essex where the 240MW early Magnox station closed in 2002. NDA has also said that surplus land close by the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria may also be made available for future nuclear stations.