Wylfa B Online Land Auction War To Start

by Malcolm
(Wales)

Land near Wylfa Power Station will soon be auctioned online by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), as the fight for securing nuclear new build locations in Britain hots up.

With UK energy policy now favouring a new generation of nuclear power stations, a number of top power generating companies have formed consortia hoping to bid for Wylfa B and these other key locations.

According to the NDA, the online auction will invite the interested parties to bid for available land on its sites across the UK, with the aim of maximising funds raised for decommissioning the 19 sites the Authority owns across Britain.

The online auction will not exactly be open like eBay where everyone can see the latest action. Only the bidders will see the real time action, and this approach is preferred to a closed bid, as more money can be raised for cleaning old sites.

This process will be similar to that carried out by the government when they auctioned off third generation mobile phone licenses back in 2000.

As well as land at Wylfa, the NDA will auction off packets of land at Oldbury and Bradwell, all of which have 999 year leaseholds for the winning bid.

The process for each site is expected to be completed when no further bids are made 24 hours after the last bid.

When French giant EDF successfully acquired British Energy Group, a condition of the agreement was that it had to
sell its land at Wylfa to give other companies the opportunity to compete for new build contracts.

A number of companies including Spanish firm Iberdrola and Scottish and Southern Energy have expressed interest in building a Wylfa B.

Momentum is certainly building up after
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said thousands of jobs could be created on Anglesey with a new plant at Wylfa.

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