National Policy Statement for Nuclear Energy Generation

Lord Wigley Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow the very thoughtful speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, and particularly to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Maclean of Redditch, on her maiden speech, which was a tour de force. I am sure we will hear much more in the Chamber and that it will create discussion in all parts of the House. I wish her well in her parliamentary career in this House. She will find that being on the Opposition Benches is a little different from being in government—those of us who have never been in government know that even more, but we have to learn to live with it.

I thank the Minister for the manner in which he introduced this debate and, indeed, for his personal commitment to the nuclear industry. We know that what he is doing is very positively motivated to make sure that we get progress. In welcoming this debate, I should perhaps first spell out—some noble Lords will be aware of this —my background in nuclear energy. Many years ago I graduated from Manchester University with a degree in physics, with nuclear physics a key component—although I readily admit that I have largely forgotten that science.

During the university vacation, I worked on the building site of the Trawsfynydd power station, and for 27 years I was the MP for the Caernarfon seat—now part of Dwyfor Meirionnydd, as it has been recast—where Trawsfynydd is of course located. My constituency included the Dinorwig pumped-storage hydroelectric scheme, the third largest in the world when opened and with which I was closely associated during its construction phase. It was built in tandem with the Trawsfynydd and Wylfa nuclear power stations, with a lifespan that anticipated further nuclear energy investment in north-west Wales.

I have been a member of several cross-party parliamentary groupings on nuclear power and a firm advocate for the construction of additional nuclear power capacity, as indeed are two Plaid Cymru MPs in the other House, Llinos Medi and Liz Saville Roberts, who represent, respectively, the areas where Wylfa and Trawsfynydd stations are located. There have been local campaigns to use those two sites for new nuclear generation capacity, and possibly for industries associated with the production of medical radioisotopes needed in the treatment of cancer. I should make it clear that, like other parties, there are members of Plaid Cymru who do not support nuclear energy for a variety of reasons. Over recent decades, the party has accepted the compromise that the two existing nuclear sites should be developed for future nuclear power and associated industries, but with a presumption against the development of greenfield sites for such purposes.

I personally am fully persuaded that nuclear energy has a significantly lower carbon footprint in its electricity generation profile than other sources of electricity. Indeed, it is two orders of magnitude less than coal, oil and gas, and one order of magnitude lower than wind and hydropower. But it is not a question of either/or in relation to such renewables—we need both. Wind, wave, solar and estuarial sources of power certainly have a significant role to play, but in planning modern generation facilities we have to provide a source of energy that meets baseload requirements, and I have no hesitation in advocating nuclear power for those purposes.

It is worth noting that the great Welsh climate scientist, Sir John Houghton, seen by many as the father of the campaign alerting the world to the dangers of carbon warming, who died in 2020, revised his attitude towards nuclear energy in the latter years of his life. A few years before his passing, he came to accept the overwhelming scientific evidence that nuclear energy is part of the solution, not the problem, though he advocated in the fifth edition of his book In the Eye of the Storm, published in 2013, that the first port of call for the necessary nuclear material should be from the reworking of existing nuclear weapons. That is a viewpoint with which I have considerable sympathy, although that is of course not the sole source of the necessary nuclear material.

We have, at Wylfa and Trawsfynydd, two sites that are already licensed for nuclear purposes. Decommissioning work commenced some years ago, but both sites will, of course, need to be safeguarded and monitored into the future. In these circumstances, rather than build brand new nuclear facilities on greenfield sites, which will need both new town and country planning authorisation and clearance by the nuclear safety authorities, it seems basic common sense to locate new nuclear generation facilities on these existing sites. This can be achieved more expeditiously and at lower cost.

The original planning application for Wylfa B was in 1989—I emphasise that the application for the second Wylfa station, for which we are still waiting, was given back in 1989. Apparently, the Government have removed the existing list of designated nuclear sites, including Wylfa, from their approved planning policy. I am not quite sure why that has happened.

Their decision to consult on a new planning policy is creating totally unnecessary uncertainty at Wylfa. Surely recognised locations such as Wylfa should be given a swift go-ahead, while any new sites are rightly put through the rigorous planning and safety-check process. As things stand, it seems that the Government are content to see the whole process slowed down to allow the speed of the slowest, most complex site to determine the speed of the entire convoy of new nuclear stations. To my mind, this is an absolute nonsense.

Both Wylfa and Trawsfynydd are ideal locations for new small modular reactors, which we hope will get the go-ahead very soon. I commend Rolls-Royce on its pioneering work. Wylfa could also accommodate a larger nuclear power station—such as an AMR, which we heard about earlier—as its seaboard location gives it a ready source of coolant. Trawsfynydd is constrained by the size of the lake nearby as a source of coolant, so it is probably better suited for an SMR and to radioisotope production facilities.

The Welsh Government have indicated their general support for both locations, though obviously both will need detailed planning consent when firm proposals are mature for consideration. The Senedd has also supported initiatives to see whether a project related to the medical use of radioactive technology could be developed at Trawsfynydd, and I believe that it has allocated £40 million for that initial work.

I remind colleagues participating in the debate that there is an approaching crisis because of the shortage of radioisotopes, both as tracers for the identification of cancers in the human body and for the treatment of such conditions. At present, there is a critical shortage of such material, and the NHS will face a crisis if it is not soon sorted.

There are also several excellent sites for further pump storage schemes similar to Dinorwig but on a smaller scale, one of which has been developed by the site owners—who come from Worcestershire, I am glad to say—who are doing excellent work, at the old Dorothea slate quarry at Talysarn near Caernarfon. This will create much-needed work in the Nantlle valley. I hope that GB Energy will be in a position to give the go-ahead to this and similar pump storage schemes. They are highly relevant, both to nuclear projects, such as Trawsfynydd and Wylfa, and to estuarial, tidal and wind-generated electricity, which is an essential ingredient in the basket of power sources needed to meet current and future demand. This dimension will be greatly expanded by AI and other computer technology, which will require a far greater availability of electricity than that which can be facilitated by existing sources within the grid.

I also point out that Bangor University, located about half way between Wylfa and Trawsfynydd, has a significant level of nuclear expertise. The vice-chancellor Edmund Burke—a fine parliamentary name—came to Bangor from the University of Nottingham and is a physicist himself. He is excitedly awaiting the go-ahead for these sites, with a mission to train the nuclear scientists, technologists and engineers who are much needed for these schemes and, indeed, for other nuclear energy projects in other parts of these islands.

It is against this background that I address the National Policy Statement for Nuclear Energy Generation EN-7 before us. It is no doubt full of worthy, carefully considered provisions relating to the rollout of the new nuclear energy programme, but nowhere does this document come anywhere near to conveying the urgency of making decisions on new nuclear, and making them now, if we are to have any chance whatever of meeting our net-zero carbon targets by 2050.

All the environmental, social and legal screening of new projects seems to be geared to slowing down their rolling out. Successive Governments, of both political persuasions, have dithered and prevaricated on this issue for three decades and longer. The time is surely now ripe for firm decisions to be taken. The proverbial Mrs Jones Llanrug, as we say in Wales—or perhaps Mrs Smith of Smethwick, as would be said in the Midlands—has a right to expect that, when she flicks a switch, there will be electricity running through her light bulbs, electric fires and water heaters. If the day comes when she flicks that switch and nothing happens, there will quite rightly be holy hell to pay. It is the duty of this Parliament to avoid shirking, yet again, the vital decisions needed on these matters.

Future generations have the right to expect that we shall generate electricity from a balanced combination of renewable, tidal, estuarial, solar and wind power, underpinned by a baseload capacity of clean, new nuclear sources, including, eventually, electricity generated from fusion technology. I therefore call on the Government to step up to the plate, to grasp the duty that faces them and to announce the approval of a new programme of nuclear power construction with minimal delay. I hope that the Minister, who I know shares our concerns about these issues, is in a position to give news of when such go-aheads will happen, either here today or within a timescale that does not run beyond this parliamentary Session. I hope that he will not disappoint us.