The Success of Cwmni
Egino
: Will the
Minister explain how the Welsh Government will measure the
success of Cwmni Egino? OQ58178
(Minister for the
Economy): Thank you. Cwmni Egino's long-term success will
ultimately depend on the realisation of key projects at the
Trawsfynydd site that deliver local benefits. These will be
assessed through a community benefits framework developed over
the next 12 months in consultation with the local community under
the company's social value charter. All of this, of course, is
reliant on UK Government investment being made in a nuclear
future within Trawsfynydd.
: I thank the
Minister for that response. Now, anyone who follows the story of
the nuclear sector in this country—and I do in detail—will know
that Rolls-Royce
is the only option considered by the Westminster Government to
develop small nuclear modular reactors, SMRs. Now, of course,
this close relationship between the Westminster Government and
Rolls-Royce
comes as a result of the fact that we need to secure the skills
and supply chain for the Dreadnought submarine programme, which
is hugely expensive, and that's what actually drives the new
demand for nuclear. The SMR Rolls-Royce
proposals are 450 MW and the company has made it entirely clear
to me in our meetings that the infrastructure doesn't exist in
Trawsfynydd to locate one of the SMRs, never mind more than one.
Given that an SMR cannot come to Traws, therefore, what is the
point of Cwmni Egino?
: I don't share the
Member's assessment that there is no SMR future in Trawsfynydd.
We've also, though, been looking at not just the possibilities of
SMR but actually the real need for the potential for research,
and, indeed, radioisotope generation, which, of course, is
crucial for a range of areas of our health service. And,
actually, we know that radioisotope generation is declining
within the wider western world and Europe, and there's a real
need to do that, and Trawsfynydd is a potential site. We think
it's the best site available within the UK.
So, actually, we have a range of opportunities to continue to
press around the Trawsfynydd site. Cwmni Egino has been developed
to make sure that we can capture as many of those local
opportunities as possible. It was a relatively surprising
announcement when the Prime Minister, at the Welsh Conservatives'
conference, announced there would be further investment in the
Trawsfynydd site, and, actually, the fact that the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy had been having
conversations with Cwmni Egino just before that announcement to
make it clear that they wanted to do that. We need to see the
headline announcement convert into practical reality, both in
Trawsfynydd and further afield in terms of a nuclear future on
Wylfa as well. The direction is a positive one; it's actually the
delivery on it that I'm most interested in being made real and
then making sure there's genuine local benefit for local people,
but also the wider Welsh economy as well.
A future for steel—there really should be a role for Welsh steel
to go into any kind of new nuclear future, whether in
Traws or Wylfa, or both, ideally. So, I remain committed to
trying to do the right thing to generate that local economic
benefit, and I look forward to having a more constructive
conversation with the Member and with the Member for the Wylfa
constituency as well, on Ynys Môn, and indeed regional partners
who I know will, no doubt, maintain a real interest.
