WHAT does our community really need? How can we build thriving local places and lock in the wealth?
These were the questions I kept coming back to when Mark Hooper and I met local campaign group ‘No Nuclear at Cwm Llynfi’ last Friday.
An American company, Last Energy, has plans to develop four Small Modular nuclear Reactors (SMRs) on site. To date, they haven’t installed SMRs anywhere in the world. It will be privately owned, meaning most of the profits will flow out of Wales.
The risks associated with nuclear are concerning, from radiation leaks to managing nuclear waste as there are currently no solutions to dispose of such waste anywhere in the UK.
So, what does the community gain? SMRs rely on centralised manufacturing and ship modules to a site to save on cost. Therefore, many of the anticipated construction jobs may not materialise.
As for specialist roles, as the local area has no prior experience of nuclear energy, many of these jobs will be filled by people from outside the community.
We met with Jenny from Friends of the Earth who are supporting the local anti-nuclear campaign, who informed us that the project will supply most of the electricity to private industry, including future data centres. Not to local homes or schools.
It increasingly seems like the community faces much of the risk of hosting a nuclear project and little reward.
Alongside several constituents who have written to my office to note their concerns with this project, the petition to stop the project has now passed 2,000 signatures.
As local Senedd Members, Mark and I are supporting our constituents on this matter.
My way of working is more than reaction to concerns. I want this issue to spark wider conversations about how we use the land around us, with communities leading the way.
What projects would you like to see developed to benefit the places where we live, work and play? There are exciting alternatives, from community owned energy where local people control the profits, to shared allotments, orchards, and woodlands. Great example of these already exist right across Wales, so why not here?
If you have any ideas, do get in touch with my office. We won’t tolerate projects that extract profits from our communities, but it’s equally important to build something positive here and lead a constructive campaign for an alternative. Let’s start that conversation!
By Plaid Cymru MS Sarah Rees.
The views expressed by columnists of this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Glamorgan Star, its employees or its proprietors.
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