BBC Wales claims that The nuclear power industry linked to the planned new Wylfa plant on Anglesey could be worth £5.7bn to the Welsh economy,
Research for the Welsh Government, estimates investment and business opportunities over 20 years.
At its peak in six years time, 6,800 people would be building Wylfa Newydd, which will have a workforce of 875.
So although it will make an huge boost to employment in Wales but there are no guarantees that all these jobs will go to local people and it will as the report say at the end of the day lead to 850 jobs.
How many permanent jobs could be created throughout Wales for the cost of even a fraction of the the £14bn plant,
I'm no economist it could mean 850 jobs duplicated in more than one part of Wales and would not lead to us facing the cost of decommissioning these plants
It says something for this "Independent "report by consultancy Miller Research who have looked at the capability of businesses in Wales to respond to opportunities in the nuclear supply chain over the next 20 decommissioning of the current old power station, at Wylf and Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd is presented as a positive gains ad the cost of doing the same for the proposed plant which in the future might be faced by the Welsh Government.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart said it was a "once in a generation opportunity".
But it will be another generation that will be faced for paying for this and the cost of jobs on Ynys Mon by firms not wanting to create businesses in the shadow of a nuclear power station on the island probably can't realty be estimated but could it be more or less than the "permanent" jobs created.
Were the authors of this report asked to look at any negative effects on the Welsh economy of building a new Wylfa ?
Or even consider how a similar amount of public/private investment in the Welsh economy could benefit the people of Wales and not leave us future generations with the cost of cleaning up our mess.
2 comments:
Just look at the cost of the clean up operation that would have to be mounted when wylfa newydd came to the end of its life and had to be decommissioned. The cost of cleaning up sellafield has risen to an enormous 70 billion pounds.
Let's say wales is self governing by then - how the f*** would any welsh government be able to afford that? It would totally bankrupt Wales.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-26124803
Hasn't disposal of the waste now been devolved to Cardiff? i.e. Westminster builds the machine to produce the waste, and Wales has to see how they get rid of it? ....
Anyway, more to the point: There are no companies in Wales who can design and build a Nuclear Power Plant. Anybody thinking that EdF, Hitachi, Westinghouse et al. will do the right thing and train up the locally unemployed then entrust them to design and build one, is gravely mistaken. These companies all have their own staff of permanently employed engineers who will do all the design work in the office of their parent company (I work for a company who designs Hydro Power and Desalination Plant, and we do exactly the same). Local labour is employed a) for the language skills and b) to explain the intricacies of the planning approval procedures. All companies able to do a job of this magnitude have staff fully fluent in English. We do not need kid ourselves that anyone will bend over backwards to get the job done in Welsh. And EdF, Hitachi et al will be dealing directly with Westminster regarding any planning applications. Cardiff will be conveniently ignored.
OK, so much to the design work. Now to the construction. Most highly trained British engineers who worked on Sellafield, Sizewell etc are now retired. Very few live on Anglesey. So what are we left with? Earth moving contracts. Good for local contractors to make a quick buck or 5. Fencing: also good; Security: probably go to Group4 or another English company, who will most likely employ a few locals, while creaming a tidy profit.
Add to this labour force the chippies, brickies, concrete mixers, road sweeps and a couple of enterprising local catering companies to run the workers canteens, then the majority of "new jobs" will be low paid, low level and only be around for the duration of the construction works.
Operation of the plant will not be entrusted to this work force. This will again be a work force of trained staff coming from head office, supported again by a workforce of low paid, unskilled workers (cleaners, security, catering).
Yes: a power plant DOES create jobs. No: these jobs are of little long term benefit to the local community.
And no: as power generation of plant larger than 350 MW has not been devolved, Wales will also have very little to say in any issues.
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