Qualla: Wylfa nuclear power station

Wylfa nuclear power station: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. When Reactor 1 finally shut down at Wylfa on 30 December 2015, the British Magnox programme ended. Forty-four years of grid generation, 6,156 vertical fuel channels containing 49,248 natural-uranium fuel elements clad in magnesium-aluminium alloy, two graphite cores each weighing 3,800 tonnes, carbon dioxide gas circulating at scale and pressure that no one in the world was building reactors for any more. Wylfa was the last reactor of its kind anywhere on earth. Demolition of the buildings is scheduled to start in 2096. The 'care and maintenance' phase in between will last seventy years. Some of the people who started work at Wylfa in the 1960s lived to see the place shut down. None of them will live to see it cleared.

Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wylfa nuclear power station: Magnox: The British Reactor

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MrCranky83, CC BY-SA 4.0. Magnox reactors were a British design — graphite-moderated, carbon-dioxide-cooled, fuelled with natural uranium metal clad in a magnesium-aluminium alloy known as Magnox (short for 'magnesium non-oxidising'), from which the reactor type took its name. They were the first generati...

Image: MrCranky83 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wylfa nuclear power station: Construction and the Quiet Compromises

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Construction began in 1963 by British Nuclear Design and Construction (BNDC), a consortium of English Electric, Babcock & Wilcox, and Taylor Woodrow. The two 490-megawatt reactors became operational in 1971. They were the largest and last Magnox-type reactors ever built. Wylfa wa...

Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wylfa nuclear power station: Half a Century of Quiet Trouble

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Huw P, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wylfa ran, mostly without incident, for forty-four years. There were episodes of public anxiety. A safety review in April 2000 found deteriorating welds in critical components; reinforcement work was carried out, but Greenpeace commissioned a critical independent report from Larg...

Image: Huw P | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wylfa nuclear power station: Decommissioning: A Multi-Generational Project

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Greig, CC BY-SA 2.0. What happens to a reactor when it stops generating? In Magnox's case: not much, not quickly. Defuelling — removing all 49,248 fuel elements from the cores and sending them to Sellafield — started in 2016 and was completed in 2019. The site is now in a phase that involves removing...

Image: Ian Greig | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wylfa nuclear power station: The Endless Sequel

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 瑞丽江的河水, CC BY-SA 4.0. Even before Wylfa shut down, the question of what would replace it on the site was being asked. The proposed Wylfa Newydd, with two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors, was approved by the UK regulator in 2017 but cancelled by Hitachi in 2020. A US consortium has discussed AP1000 rea...

Image: 瑞丽江的河水 | CC BY-SA 4.0