4. Statement by the Minister for Economy: Developing Technological Clusters in Wales — Medical radioisotope production and nuclear medicine expertise

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:10 pm on 10 January 2023.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:10, 10 January 2023

I'll just deal with what I was modestly confused by, almost as if Wylfa and Trawsfynydd were on the same site in some of the points. The Traws site is an obvious candidate for the proposal we're talking about today, but in moving forward with the business plan, it will be site agnostic. Trawsfynydd has a nuclear licence for development, the other site being Wylfa, but we'll need to look at what is the best fit in terms of developing the site. The Cwmni Egino development is focusing on the potential for small modular rector production, as I've made clear in previous statements. Now, the size and the scale of the reactor we're talking about for ARTHUR is sufficiently small that you could do both on either site, because what we're talking about is a reactor that would be essentially 1 per cent of the size of the previous Horizon proposal on Wylfa.

I think that shows you can do something small with entirely different safety questions around it in terms of the scale, but it is essential for the way that a modern health service works and functions. If you look at the development in Australia, they have not just done something that deals with their own healthcare needs for that part of the world, not just in Australia but for partner countries as well, but also the significant additional economic and research activity around the site. And that's where I think there is potential, not just for the direct provision of the radioisotopes that we need—we know that supply in western Europe is coming to an end—but there is a wider technology cluster opportunity that is available. That's where I'm interested in seeing what we can do.

I've had direct conversations with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the UK Government. As I say, I've had this conversation with a number of science Ministers. I've spoken to George Freeman about this in one of his previous iterations as science Minister. And as I said in my statement, there have been constructive and regular conversations between my own officials and those across the UK Government. 

We're in the fortunate position of having myself and the health department being in the same place and wanting to see the opportunity taken up. We need to have a similar conversation that would be ideal with both the health department and, indeed, BEIS in the UK Government, and there are then questions about the future funding. We would like the UK Government to be a partner in doing this. It is also possible that you could deliver some of this with private sector investment. My preference would be that we'd see this as part of a sovereign capability for the UK, with the ideal site, I believe, being here in Wales. However, there are a range of options and opportunities, because as we have seen in other parts of the world, there is a return on capital investment and a potential return on the operating cost of such a site, if successfully delivered.

Once we've gone through what I've outlined today, we'll have a much better idea of the technical facilities and capabilities we'd be looking to build, and a much better investment projector to be able to take this forward. And I would hope that a UK Government of any particular political shade would recognise the significant opportunity this represents and what that would mean in terms of genuine economic development in long-term jobs here in Wales.