Price challenge as ‘new nuclear plant a threat to independence’
PLAID Cymru leadership candidate Adam Price has said that supporting a new nuclear power station in Anglesey is incompatible with backing Welsh independence.
His argument poses a serious challenge to rival Rhun ap Iorwerth, who supports the building of the Wylfa B power station in his Ynys Môn constituency.
Nuclear power has long been a difficult issue for Plaid. While the party is officially opposed to it, its politicians in Ynys Môn have been allowed to adopt an opposing stance.
Such a contradiction extended to allowing former party leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, who has represented the island at both Westminster and the Senedd, to deviate from party policy when he led it.
Now Mr Price has thrown down the gauntlet to the current AM, Rhun ap Iorwerth.
In a campaign document setting out the steps to an independent Wales, Mr Price says Plaid must be clear in its opposition to Wylfa B to avoid incurring unaffordable future liabilities.
He writes: “The nuclear plant is designed to provide more electric power consumption than the whole of electricity demand in Wales.
“Even though demand for electricity is likely to rise it will still require a significant amount of this electricity to be exported,
“Wylfa B/Newydd would therefore require a similar contract to that which has been agreed with Hinkley C [a nuclear power station in Somerset].”
Mr Price states that if Wales were to become independent it would be dependent on such a contract continuing to defray the capital repayment and servicing costs of the project.
“If it could not secure adequate purchases from English customers at what is likely to be a much higher than market price, then the burden of paying for the electricity would fall on either Welsh taxpayers or Welsh energy consumers,” he writes.
“This would be an enormous burden. It could lead to the premature decommissioning of the power station, which would accelerate the decommissioning costs.
“Decommissioning costs are themselves unpredictable and historically have been radically underfunded.
“Any unfunded costs would fall on the Welsh state unless an agreement had been made with the owners of the nuclear facility to fund any shortfall – but even this commercial guarantee would leave an independent Wales with an enormous contingent liability.
“It is difficult, therefore, not to agree with the conclusion reached by [business consultant and Plaid Cymru supporter] Madoc Batcup in the Energy Policy options paper commissioned by the party in 2013: ‘It would represent a huge risk for any future Welsh government, and potential or perceived liabilities on this project alone could jeopardise the financial standing of any future Welsh government, and were it to be built would likely be an important negative factor in discussions on independence, precisely because questions would be raised as to the ability of an independent Welsh government to shoulder those risks’.
“As things currently stand, therefore, it is possible to support Wylfa B or Welsh independence: it’s difficult to see how it is possible to support both.”
Mr ap Iorwerth was invited to respond, but has not done so. At the time he was first selected as Plaid’s Assembly candidate for Ynys Môn in 2013, he said: “I have long held my own opinion on Wylfa and its potential for Anglesey.”