Geograph - photograph every grid square

Viewed from Llanbadrig Point.

The nuclear power station at Wylfa houses two Magnox nuclear reactors, which were built from 1963 and became operational in 1971. It was the last and largest power station of its type to be built in the UK.

The location, on the north coast of Anglesey between Holyhead and Amlwch, was chosen as The Wylfa Peninsula is on a hard rock site which provides excellent, geographically stable, foundation conditions for a nuclear station and is sufficiently high above sea level to avoid serious flood risks. Additionally, it provided easy access for construction and has a vast, unlimited source of cooling water from the Irish sea (Link (Archive Link ) /site-history ).

Following the closure of Trawsfynydd in 1991, Wylfa is now the only operational nuclear power station in Wales. It currently supplies more than 40% of Wales' electricity needs and on a typical day, the station supplies 23 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to meet the needs of a city, twice the size of Liverpool and Manchester combined (Link (Archive Link ) /facts-and-figures ).

The current power station (Wylfa A) was scheduled to close in 2010, but operations have been extended to 2012 which will make Wylfa the World's final generation I reactor to be shut down.

On 18 October 2010 the British government announced that Wylfa was one of the eight sites it considered suitable for future nuclear power stations (Link BBC News). There are proposals for a new power station to be built on a site immediately to the south of the existing Wylfa A station (Link - Horizon Nuclear Power).

The area around the 21 hectare site includes several areas of environmental importance.

Link - Nuclear Decommissioning Agency
Link (Archive Link ) - Magnox
Link (Archive Link ) - PAWB (People Against Wylfa B)