Wylfa Newydd: 'Restart' hope for Anglesey nuclear project

Work on Wylfa Newydd was planned to start in 2020

Full planning permission will still be sought for the Wylfa Newydd nuclear project, despite the fact it has been put on hold.

This would allow "a timely restart" to work on the £13bn plant on Anglesey in the future, the company behind it said.

Horizon was building the plant as a subsidiary of Hitachi, with two nuclear reactors set to be up and running by the mid-2020s.

But the Japanese firm suspended work last month because of rising costs.

It said the decision would cost it an estimated 300bn yen (£2.1bn) as "extraordinary losses".

The suspension was "from the viewpoint of its economic rationality as a private enterprise".

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• Hitachi's Wylfa nuclear project delay 'not a stop'

• Nuclear plant in Anglesey suspended by Hitachi

About 9,000 workers had been expected to be involved in building the facility, which would have the potential to power five million homes and have a 60-year operational life.

But despite the suspension, Horizon said it would still seek the Development Consent Order (DCO) the project needs.

"Completing this phase of the DCO does not change the overall decision to suspend wider activities but it will help give the best chance of a restart for the project at Wylfa Newydd, which remains the premier nuclear new-build site in the UK," said the firm's executive director Anthony Webb.