Select committee: Welsh Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
Third Report - Nuclear energy in Wales
Published 3 May 2023
Paragraph 48
Addressed to Wales Office
Welsh Affairs Committee Nuclear energy in Wales All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recognise the high cost of construction of nuclear energy plants and the large upfront investment needed to get a project to final investment decision. We hope that the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model will help overcome these investment challenges. However, there are valid concerns about the risk to consumers, which needs to be closely monitored in order to be better understood as the RAB model is used for the first time for a nuclear project at Sizewell C. The Government should explain the mechanisms it will use to monitor and report to the House during the construction of Sizewell C.
From: Welsh Affairs Committee, Third Report - Nuclear energy in Wales (HC 240), paragraph 48, 3 May 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 July 2023 (deadline 3 July 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government responds to the Committee's recommendations mainly by pointing to Great British Nuclear and a new National Policy Statement, while stating that "no decisions have been taken over which technologies future projects will proceed with, or at which sites".
- On Wylfa Newydd, it says any decision to sell the site is "a commercial decision for Hitachi", and that Great British Nuclear "will be working with Government on access to potential sites".
- It will develop a new National Policy Statement for new nuclear power stations beyond 2025, and "will consult later this year" on a policy for how new developments could be sited in future.
- On Great British Nuclear, its first priority is a competitive process to select Small Modular Reactor technologies, with "an ambition to assess and decide on the leading technologies by autumn". Development funding is "subject to future Spending Reviews".
- On local content, it says this is "a commercial decision for developers to make", while it "welcomes" companies supporting local regions.