Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
10 , 000 jobs nuked
‘Energy crisis’ alert as firm freezes plans to build £16bn atomic plant
PLANS for a £16billion nuclear power station were put on hold yesterday – killing off up to 10,000 jobs.
Japanese giant Hitachi confirmed it was freezing work on the Wylfa plant on Anglesey because of rising costs.
The firm said it will also suspend a planned atomic site at Oldbury, Glos, “till a solution can be found”. Critics said the latest in a series of power station setbacks had left the Government facing a “fullblown energy crisis”.
Rival firm Toshiba scrapped the proposed Moorside plant in Cumbria two months ago.
And Hinkley Point B in Somerset, the UK’S only new nuclear plant under construction, has suffered lengthy delays.
Hitachi said it had held “close discussions with the Government on financing Wylfa for some years”.
But Duncan Hawthorne, CEO of its atomic business Horizon Nuclear Power, added: “I am very sorry to say that, despite the best efforts of everyone, we’ve not been able to reach an agreement.
“We’ll take steps to reduce our presence but keep the option to resume development in future.”
Waves of ageing coal-powered plants have had to close, raising fears on whether the UK will have enough sources of electricity to meet demand.
Labour’s Shadow Busi- ness Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said the Government’s nuclear plans “lay in tatters” and had “escalated into a full-blown crisis”.
The Confederation of British Industry’s chief UK policy director Matthew Fell called Hitachi’s decision “a significant blow to future UK energy supply plans”.
The Unite union’s energy officer Peter Mcintosh spoke of “real concerns over how we will keep the lights on for industry and consumers in the coming decades”.
The GMB’S energy secretary Justin Bowden said: “While the Government has had its head up its proverbial backside on Brexit, vital matters like guaranteeing the UK’S future power supply appear to have gone by the wayside.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “A deal needs to deliver for consumers and taxpayers. Despite extensive negotiations and hard work by all sides, the Government and Hitachi have been unable to reach agreement to proceed.”
Business Secretary Greg Clark told MPS the Government had offered to consider a stake in a Wylfa project. Greenpeace UK’S chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: “A clever move for the Government now would be to accept that the nuclear bet didn’t pay off, stop holding back renewables and have an urgent rethink about the future of UK energy.”
UNITE’S ENERGY OFFICER