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 4:30 pm on 10 January 2023.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:30, 10 January 2023

Thank you for the points and questions. On your point about magnet developments, this is a good example of what you could do, because if you had the operation of a facility that would probably have likely north of 200 people employed directly in the ARTHUR facility, it would be extraordinary not to have other activity around it. And the OPAL facility in Australia is a good example of that. You've seen something where there is a significant capital outlay but the opportunity to see the capital outlay returned in 15 to 20 years, to have an operating profit, and to see more jobs created around that, and they'd have to be crowded in around the facility itself. So, you really would be drawing in good-quality jobs, not just for people to come in and to live in the area, but the opportunity for people in the local area to be part of the direct engagement in that activity and the supply chains that we would want to see as localised as possible. And I do know that the leaders of the two local authorities, Ynys Môn and Gwynedd, are broadly positive about the opportunities to do this, and I'm looking forward to talking with north Wales leaders about it in the future to go through more of the detail on this.

And exactly the same for the AMRC and the ATRC that you talk about as well, because there are real opportunities to gain a much greater whole from the project rather than simply the individual parts of it at the centre. And I do think that—and it is some time ago now—in pre-COVID times, we started discussing this in our previous ministerial roles, and to see the time it's taken to get here, we could definitely have got here sooner rather than later if there had been more focus on this and less focus on other issues that have caused the instability within the UK Government that we've seen over the more recent past. I am, though, looking for a constructive conversation with Ministers in the current and any future UK Government, because I genuinely believe that this should be an opportunity for a no-regrets investment to deliver significant economic benefit and to deal with a real and pressing healthcare need, and I look forward to what I hope will be a constructive and positive response from the current or a future iteration of the UK Government.