Horizon funds training facilities for Wylfa Newydd apprentices

The UK's Horizon Nuclear Power will provide funding towards the construction of a new Engineering Centre of Excellence at a college on the Isle of Anglesey. The facility will be used for the training of apprentices for Horizon's planned nearby Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant.

The UK's Horizon Nuclear Power will provide funding towards the construction of a new Engineering Centre of Excellence at a college on the Isle of Anglesey. The facility will be used for the training of apprentices for Horizon's planned nearby Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant.

The planned Engineering Centre at Llangefri (Image: Grŵp Llandrillo Menai)

Horizon announced yesterday it is providing funding of £1 million ($1.3 million) to Grŵp Llandrillo Menai "to help facilitate the design, construction and associated infrastructure of a brand new purpose-built, state-of-the-art" Engineering Centre of Excellence. This will be built adjacent to the existing Energy Centre at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai's Llangefri campus.

Horizon will also provide technical support and advice to Coleg Menai as the facility will cater for the technical training of Horizon's apprentices. The company said its first group of apprentices, who will join next month, will initially start their technical training at existing facilities at Coleg Menai's Bangor campus in North Wales and will relocate to Llangefri once the new facility is complete.

In 2015, the Welsh government pledged £5 million towards the £10 million Engineering Centre at Coleg Menai.

Horizon CEO Duncan Hawthorne said, "I'm delighted to announce this landmark funding provision to Grŵp Llandrillo Menai. The construction of this state-of-the-art facility in Llangefri will be central to our training provision for local people, giving them the world class skills that we'll need. This announcement underlines our commitment to develop local opportunities for the Wylfa Newydd project, and is the first of many initiatives that will follow as our plans develop over the coming months and years."

Grŵp Llandrillo Menai CEO Glyn Jones said, "We are working closely with Horizon Nuclear Power and other partners to try to ensure that as many local people as possible gain the world-class skills required to work at Wylfa Newydd. The investment supports this ongoing work and is a huge vote of confidence by Horizon in our work we are doing."

Grŵp Llandrillo Menai was established in 2012 as a result of mergers between Coleg Llandrillo, Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor.

The group said it will make a full planning application for the new Engineering Centre at Llangefri next month, as well as an outline application for associated supporting resources.

Horizon expects to have all the required licences and permissions in place for the construction of two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors at Wylfa Newydd by 2018. The start of commercial operation of the plant depends on the timing of a final investment decision and detailed construction program, but is expected in the first half of the 2020s.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News