People of Anglesey have been let down on Wylfa before, but this time it’s different

Prime Minister Keir Starmer writes for the Western Mail on the day it is announced a small modular reactor will be built at Wylfa on Anglesey

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PEOPLE forget nuclear power is part of Britain’s industrial heritage. Britain was the first civil nuclear power. Calder Hall, in Cumbria, the first commercial-scale nuclear power station in the world. And not far behind it, came the Wylfa power plant, on Anglesey’s beautiful North coast.

Opened in 1971, for 44 years, Wylfa served as a foundation stone for the region’s industrial economy. It provided homes and businesses across Wales with reliable, clean, energy.

Yet when the last reactor was switched off in 2015 it unleashed a story all too familiar across Wales's industrial communities. The factory or plant closes. The jobs disappear. And with them goes a settled pattern of life. Not just the security of a good wage.

Also, the community and “chest-out” pride that grows in a town when its contribution is valued.

But that pride doesn’t disappear. It’s always there, dormant in our towns and cities, ready to be unlocked. A potential that I believe, if properly backed by government and business, can be harnessed to transform the future of Wales for the better.