Rejected petition Oppose the development of nuclear power stations on new sites in Wales
There is a proposal by a US owned company to develop a new nuclear power station in the Llynfi valley. If this is allowed to go ahead it could open the door to numerous privately owned nuclear power stations across Cymru.
The unsolicited proposal is of concern to communities for many reasons, including the prospect of radioactive waste being in situ for a minimum of fifty years.
Wales has an abundance of other forms of energy generation available which are safer, quicker and cheaper.
More details
Micro nuclear reactors, including Small Modular reactors (SMRs), are unproven technology.
Nuclear power is not renewable. It needs uranium, a finite resource, harmful to health from the mining stage.
Fission produces radioactive waste, including plutonium. This needs to be kept on site for a long period. Currently no disposal sites exist for the waste after the operation/cooling period of 50 years. Enriched uranium has a half life > 700 million years.
UK nuclear submarines, using this 1960s design, stored since the 1990s have yet to be decommissioned. The two nuclear sites in Wales (Wylfa and Trawsfynydd) won't be fully decommissioned until beyond 2080.
Wales is still facing clean up costs from the extraction of natural resources such as coal tips and contaminated sites.
Wales has an abundance of other forms of energy solutions, including solar, wind, hydro storage, geothermal energy and tidal, none needing armed guards 24/7 or major incident response plans for schools.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.
Decisions about whether to approve or reject planning applications are made by planning authorities. Petitions to the Senedd cannot seek to intervene in the operational decisions or actions of any relevant authority responsible for determining applications for planning permission or infrastructure consent in Wales, or to seek to challenge or reverse such determination.
We are not able to accept a petition on this issue – it should be pursued through the relevant planning authority procedure.
For Developments of National Significance/Infrastructure Consent under the Infrastructure Act 2024: The Legislation sets out a clear judicial procedure for challenging the granting of planning permission or any type of infrastructure consent order. It follows that a Senedd petition is not the most appropriate channel for achieving this aim. The Welsh Government has published procedural guidance: Developments of national significance (DNS): procedural guidance [HTML] | GOV.WALES
In addition, Schedules 7A and 7B of the Government of Wales Act 2006 set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ - i.e. areas where the UK Parliament, not the Senedd, can legislate. Under D4 - Nuclear Energy - nuclear energy and nuclear installations are reserved to the UK Government. As a result, it is not possible for the Senedd to take the action called for by your petition.
Further information about the powers and responsibilities of the Senedd can be found here: https://senedd.wales/how-we-work/our-role/powers/
You may wish to consider petitioning the UK Parliament about this issue instead: https://petition.parliament.uk/
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards
Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted