The Success of Cwmni Egino

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 15 June 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:57, 15 June 2022

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.