Opposition mounts to planned nuclear plant as Starmer confirms new policy of ‘Build, baby, build’
Martin Shipton
Opposition to a proposed nuclear energy plant in Bridgend is mounting, with the local Green Party saying it is “unnecessary, unwanted and unsafe”.
But doubts about the proposal come as Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK Government intends to change the planning system to make it easier for such projects to go ahead.
An American-owned company called Last Energy intends to build the SMR (small modular reactor) plant next to the River Llynfi, just to the north of Bridgend.
The Green Party argues that If the development goes ahead, it will be funded by venture capitalists who are not likely to be citizens of Wales. The nuclear power plant will operate for profit, as a private enterprise.
Untested
A party spokesperson said: “It is based on a new design which if built will be the first of its kind. So the design is untested in the real world. Locals, including Green Party members, have several credible reasons for concern.
“The Green Party questions the need for a nuclear power plant, when Wales has the natural resources required to produce all its energy from a mixture of solar power, onshore and off-shore wind generation.
“It is true that people need secure energy supplies which can be quickly restored, and that Wales needs investment in improving the grid infrastructure. But nuclear power is not the solution to Wales’ energy needs.
“As was proved in the December 2024 storm, we desperately need improvements to our energy resilience – such as the ability to restore power after severe climate events, and this should be the focus of any energy investment.
“Do locals want a nuclear power plant in Bridgend? Last Energy has hosted two community consultations, one in Bettws and one in Pencoed. Debra Cooper, the Green Party Chair for Bridgend, attended both events and asked how the locals had been invited to these meetings, given that many were unaware that they were taking place.
“The speaker gave a vague reply that Facebook had been used, and that Last Energy had outsourced the invitations. More consultation events are planned, and we demand that Last Energy genuinely seeks to invite the community to their consultations.
“Is nuclear power safe? The risk of nuclear leaks from the onsite nuclear waste storage is not acceptable.
“Who will pay for future nuclear waste storage? There is a risk that no other region of the UK will be willing to store the nuclear waste, and that this area will become a long term nuclear waste storage site. The consequences of accidental leakage and terrorist targeting have not been fully considered.”
Nuclear waste
Brian Jones, CND Cymru Vice Chair, said: ““Last Energy, despite having never built a nuclear reactor, is proposing to build four nuclear reactors near Bridgend which, like all nuclear reactors, will produce nuclear waste which needs to be safely contained and monitored for thousands of
years. Nuclear power stations have consistently cost more and taken longer to build than originally proposed.”
Tony Cooke, who leads on Wales energy policy development for the Green Party, said: “Green Party policy is clearly opposed to any new nuclear power stations. The developers haven’t actually built any to their proposed design and they don’t have a design licensed by the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation which would be required. Their website claims more than 300 are operating globally – but this is misleading – there are more than 300 pressurised water reactors), but PWR refers to a generic ‘family’ approach to design – not a specific one. Licensing is not likely to be quick. (years not months)
“The developers are presumably targeting an ex coal fired power station site because it has a now unused grid connection. These are valuable, given the time lag in getting new grid connections. The site should be prioritised for battery storage, which is needed and complements renewable generation. Because of the small scale of the proposal it is in the powers of the local authority to reject it. We should lobby for them to do so.”
Planning approvals
Richard Outram, secretary of the Britain / Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities group said: “Nuclear energy can never be 100% safe and is never ‘clean’ whatever the industry claims. Last Energy has a long way to go before securing the necessary regulatory or planning approvals to begin its project by 2027. The Office for Nuclear Regulation said this was ‘very ambitious’. And Last Energy does not even appear to have any working reactors – just mock ups! Nuclear at Bridgend would be more Lost Energy – renewables are the future.”
Last Energy says it hopes the pressurised water reactors will supply power to “mid-size manufacturers throughout the region, providing 24/7 baseload power and putting the local economy on a path toward industrial decarbonisation”.
It says the project will not need taxpayer cash, with the company estimating it would be making a £300m investment, £30m of which would benefit the local economy, excluding business rates collected by Bridgend County Borough Council. It also expects to create at least 100 local full-time jobs.
Last Energy UK CEO Michael Jenner said: “Last Energy’s Llynfi project will not only transform a vacant coal site into a hub for clean energy production, it will also create economic opportunity for companies throughout South Wales.
“The benefits of nuclear power speak for themselves, so our focus must be on delivering those benefits on time and on budget. Last Energy’s emphasis on mass-manufacturability allows us to deliver significantly smaller plants in under 24 months with purely private financing.
“We look forward to engaging with the public, meeting local suppliers, and being an active partner in south Wales’ path towards energy security and industrial decarbonisation.”
Nato
In June 2024, Last Energy announced it was working with Nato to research opportunities for the future deployment of micro-nuclear power technologies at military installations.
The partnership between Last Energy and Nato Energy Security Centre of Excellence (Ensec Coe) will see the two parties research military applications for the micro-reactors and look into potential deployment.
In October 2024, independent nuclear experts told New Civil Engineer magazine that SMRs could be used to produce weapons-grade material, but various practical, legal and moral challenges made this unlikely to be done in reality.
On February 6 Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to “build baby build”, as he announced plans to make it easier to construct mini nuclear power stations in England and Wales.
He told the BBC the government was going to “take on the blockers” and change planning rules so new reactors could be built in more parts of the country.
Sir Keir said he wanted the country to return to being “one of the world leaders on nuclear”, helping to create thousands of highly skilled jobs and boosting economic growth.
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Starmer says: “Build, baby, build…….. but not in the south east or in my back yard.”
I will object to this at every opportunity. MP first.
Wealth injection please NOT venture capitalist wealth extraction.
Nuclear may produce less CO2 emission but the clean up will costs millions. There is a very good chance Cymru will be independent in the near future (for all the pessimists, talk to the younger generation, a high percentage of which is now in favour of self determination), our country will be left to clean up the nuclear waste, just as we’ve been left to clean up the mess from coal mining. As the article states – Cymru doesn’t need nuclear facilities, it has an abundance of clean energy sources it can draw upon.
Under what kind of regime I wonder…
The experts put full decommissioning at 95 years.
Assuming no delays.
Trawsfynydd stopped generating in 1991 a tentative schedule puts 2071 as a target to full decommissioning. Time will tell.
There is no future in nuclear.
Just another of Der Sturmer’s fantasies that must be resisted. The Greens are right!
For a succinct appraisal of the fantasy programme, see Richard Murphy…
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/02/09/labours-growth-policy-is-fantasy-fiction/
Such a waste of time and money when the UK Government has all the tools at its command to fund health, education and food, say, directly rather than adopting a dangerous, convoluted path of indefinite length and uncertain outcomes. Occam’s Razor would quickly deal with it.
Scary to consider that this government would consider burying nuclear waste under the ocean floor. We can really see what happens when things go wrong.
‘The Green Party argues that If the development goes ahead, it will be funded by venture capitalists who are not likely to be citizens of Wales. ‘ …… and those who fund all our wind turbines are citizens of Wales?
That doesn’t matter, it suits their narrative.
Is he the full shilling or just another amoral empty vessel lawyer waiting for the next brief…
John Harris answers this in the guardian today…
Drax, worse than burning coal, killing people now, not in some imagined future…
Starmer needs to lead the way and put a reactor in North London.
The rest of us can then see the opposition that will create.
Wales still produces far more than it uses, so is anyone asking the question where this power is needed?
The green Party would object, anyone with an ounce of common sense would say go for it there is no down side; Thousands of Jobs in the construction and then thousands very good jobs in the running and maintenance of the Station, cheap clean energy for decades to come regardless of whether or not the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
It supposed to be off the shelf unit that hasn’t been built or tested yet with a firm that doesn’t have any provenance in the industry and the expertise and has to buy it in. That means the bottom line is their target. Profit. Not our safety if they can get close to it.
Factor in its a US form and the way the US is going with regulation, we don’t want it here.
But no downside. Really? Risks, decommissioning, storage, refuelling, transport of highly deadly materials by a firm running to the bottom line?
Risks are manageable, they create more jobs for the people who have to manage them. Read the comments on here and it is soul destroying, Wales will never be anything than the 3rd world 2nd rate place it is rapidly becoming with the petty small minded attitude of the Plaid Nationalists and the Greens. But there will be plenty of windmills and solar panels to blight the country side alongside the coal tips that are still here after more years than I can remember.
Five of the Comments have been omitted below (for reasons unknown), including my second one. I was responding to a comment that made much of nuclear’s continuous power contrasting it with the intermittency of some sources eg. wind. This is a serious issue, but… Intermittency is less of a problem if we reduce energy use (by increasing end-use efficiency and storage, phasing out unsustainable high-energy uses, deploy building insulation, harvest wave and tidal energy, adopt trams for intra- and interurban urban access, reduce working hours…). That programme would also massively increase high-skill employment opportunities and increase the wealth we can… Read more »
Welsh politicians haven’t got the vision, the drive or ambition or the competencies needed to give Wales a great future.
Richard Carpenter I work with some of them, and I have no doubt that they have.
No more negative vibes please.
Instead of winging on NC then why don’t you put your name forward at the next Senedd Elections to see if you have the drive, ambition and competency to give Cymru a great future.
Agreed,Welsh politicians are trough lovers. That’s why they want more AM’s. They are as competent as the WRU. And that’s why Wales won’t want any independence, I’d rather have the glass shed torn down. But….you are spot on.
It doesn’t have U.K. design approval and spent fuel will have to be stored on site. But it’s bang on Welsh Government policy and of a size they can approve. It will provide heat and power so I’d be amazed if this wasn’t consented. For the Welsh Government right now it’s net zero at ANY cost
Let’s not forget that the Welsh Government published their chosen sites for heat networks in 2019, and Bridgend is one of them. This, or other SMRs, could provide the heat. Like with the onshore wind farms on peat soils the Government are approving with enthusiasm, this project will have been agreed with them some years ago. The consultations are just going through the motions to give the appearance that the public will be listened to
Starmer sounds daft when echoing Trumps rhetoric. The people who like Trump are never going to vote for him and those who don’t will be alienated by this kind of talk.
The talk of builders vs blockers reminds me of an old computer game Lemmings.
Mini Power Station. Why? Use the money to put our electricity under ground and reduce that way our wether related power cuts. A better and safer way to spend our money.
Instead of sending to the USA. Keep our money in Wales.
NO NUCLEAR ENERGY!
Expensive, unsafe and not needed.
Why would you deliberately remind people of a notorious “let’s destroy the world” slogan? Every day a new effort to show that this PM, like the last one, has no talent for politics.
The idea that renewables are an effective source of generation is false, do not listen to Greenpeace and the like they are technically illiterate and very biased against humanity.
There is only one available source of non CO2 emitting generation and that is nuclear.
Just because it is not owned indigenously is nonsense as all the wind farms are foreign owned and reap significant subsidies generating their second rate electricity.
Britain has destroyed it’s national industries, much due to the very high cost of renewable generation.