Call for clarity on proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear site in spring budget

Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station was originally earmarked for development by the government in 2010 but was stalled after Horizon Nuclear Power, original owners of the project, officially withdrew its planning application for the £20bn power station at Wylfa in January 2021 after funding challenges.

In a letter to the prime minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the spring budget, seen by NCE, Welsh Affairs Committee chair Stephen Crabb has called for the next nuclear power station, after Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, to be built at Wylfa.

He further argues the government has made little progress on its ambitions laid out in the British Energy Security Strategy, released in April 2022.

Crabb said: “The UK Government’s British Energy Security Strategy sent positive demand signals to the nuclear energy sector. But since its publication in April last year, we have heard very little as to how the target to generate 24GW of nuclear energy by 2050 will be accomplished."

In his letter, Crabb adds claims that government advisor on establishing Great British Nuclear, which was a key part of the Energy Strategy on nuclear, Simon Bowen, told his committee that “it will be disastrous if we waited another two years” because the “whole of the industry will lose faith” and that “we’ve got to have the courage to take an inter-generational view […] for low carbon and net zero”.

Crabb added: “Nuclear energy could hold the answer to reliable baseload as we transition away from oil and gas. With mounting household bills and the spiralling costs of fossil fuels, there is a unique opportunity to galvanise the low-carbon energy sectors. Instead, the nuclear energy sector has been waiting to know the ‘when and where’ for nuclear power stations in the UK."

In the letter, Crabb also said: "The [Energy] Strategy named Wylfa as a potential site for a new nuclear project. Since then, we have heard of growing concerns of a loss of momentum in delivery of the government’s Strategy and consequently, further uncertainty over the future of the Wylfa site.

"We have heard from a wide range of industry representatives that Wylfa is considered the best site in the UK for new nuclear development. Indeed, it is difficult to see how government can deliver its nuclear ambitions without taking forward a project at Wylfa. There is a strong view within the committee that Wylfa should be the next large scale site in line after Sizewell C so that North Wales can benefit from the economic impacts of a large-scale infrastructure project, which will bring highly skilled and well-paid long term job opportunities to a rural area of the UK.

"We have heard strong calls from the finance and skills sectors as well as from technology developers for a programme for nuclear which sets out which technology  - large scale or small modular reactors -  the government wants to be built, where and when.

"The majority of members of the committee are of the view that the Great British Nuclear arms-length body should be launched as soon as possible, with a mandate to deliver such a programme, in order to provide much needed clarity to the whole industry."

Although the original plans by Horizon Nuclear Power, which is a subsidiary of Hitachi, have been withdrawn, a consortium including engineering firm Bechtel and reactor maker Westinghouse have been in talks with government over an alternative proposal since 2020. The latest plans for Wylfa involve building two AP1000 reactors, which is a different reactor design to the EPR being used at Hinkley Point C, which is also planned for Sizewell C.

In May 2022, the consortium released cost estimates which could see the power plant built for between £14bn and £17bn.

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