British Energy to market nuclear power from Magnox reactors

London (Platts)--20Mar2007

UK generator British Energy Monday said it struck a deal with the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority to sell power from the NDA’s ageing stations.
NDA’s Magnox nuclear power stations -- Wylfa and Oldbury -- are expected
to generate about 7 TWh year until 2011, when the last Magnox plant is taken
offline, the companies said.
"The agreement provides the NDA with certainty and confidence in the
continuity of trading services with a service provider that understands the
complexity of managing and trading nuclear output" Mark Leggett, commercial
director at the NDA, said in a statement.
Neil O’Hara, trading director at British Energy said the deal would
increase “the depth and diversity of the portfolio we manage.”
The two Magnox stations are the last of eight still online. Oldbury,
which started generating electricity in 1967, is scheduled to cease operations
at the end of 2008. And Wylfa, which went online in 1971, in 2010.
The NDA and its subsidiary British Nuclear Group in December chose
British Energy to take over the BNG subsidiary that manages trading for the
UK’s Magnox nuclear power stations.
The sale of Energy Sales and Trading Ltd, a BNG subsidiary, to British
Energy is subject to final negotiations and regulatory approvals, BNG said in
a press release.
A BNG spokesman in December told Platts the companies hope to complete
the sale by the spring. No price for the deal was released.
The NDA, owned by the government, is in the process of selling off BNG
units as part of a privatization process.