By Rhodri Morgan
The UK government is in talks with Japanese technology giant Hitachi to buy back a Welsh site earmarked for major nuclear development.
According to a report in the Financial Times, Great British Nuclear, the nuclear body owned by the UK state, is in early stage discussions to buy the land in Wylfa, Anglesea back from Hitachi which in 2020 canned plans to build a new £20bn reactor there.
Ministers are now looking for new buyers into the project, one of which is reportedly South Korean nuclear developer, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
The area is unique within Europe in terms of the strength of its rockbed, ideal for complying with the enormously strict earthquake risk regulations required of a nuclear power station.
Today, the government also launched its first ever sector-wide initiative to attract and recruit people over the next two decades, as it enters a new era of government-backed expansion.
The scheme, entitled Destination Nuclear, will focus on delivering 80,000 additional skilled jobs across the UK’s civil and defence nuclear sectors.
The news comes one month after the government unveiled its roadmap for the nuclear sector in the UK, which features the mooted construction of another major power plant to rival the scope and scale of the unfinished Sizewell C.
The strategy also includes a £300m UK development programme for uranium fuel and a £10m tranche to develop the skills and sites needed to produce advanced nuclear fuels in the UK.
Another key part of the UK’s nuclear strategy will come in the form of small module reactor (SMR) development, for which it launched a competition for bids last year.
But the extensive procedural red tape surrounding the scheme has already costed Westminster a valuable potential player, with UK firm Newcleo abandoning plans of a UK development scheme, opting instead to put down roots in France.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Hitachi have been contacted for comment.
