Greenpeace spokesperson says Wylfa nuclear development ‘doesn’t inspire confidence’

In response to the government’s announcement that Wylfa in Anglesey is a preferred site for new nuclear development, Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist for Greenpeace UK, said :

“Government announcements about new reactors have a theatrical quality that doesn’t inspire confidence, particularly when the financial disaster movie of Hinkley is still rolling in the background.

“But Wylfa poses an additional danger because, after the damage suffered by EDF, no developer will take on the financial risks of construction.

“And so in the unlikely event of this reactor being built, bill payers will be on the hook for billions of cost overruns. Just how badly that can play out is revealed by the one location where the kind of funding structure favoured by the government has been tried, in South Carolina in the USA.

“The bill payers of the state have seen billions added to their bills even though the planned reactors have been abandoned uncompleted. Even worse, this financial basket case is one of the reactor designs the government is considering for Wylfa.”