Wylfa Newydd

So the May government has given a sop to the Welsh people in advance of its expected refusal to support the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon power project. Taxpayers' money will actually be put in to a second nuclear power plant on Anglesey.

I have no objection in principle to a new nuclear power station on Ynys Môn. Indeed, I complained when the Blair-Brown New Labour administration refused to sanction a replacement for Wylfa A, thus causing the loss of an aluminium smelter which had provided valuable employment. What concerns me is that the proposed reactor is, like Hinkley Point, of yet another unproven design. There are only four other stations of this boiling-water type and they are still under construction. Like the commitment to pay for intercity trains until 2045, this looks like the result of successful lobbying by Hitachi and the Japanese government.