It was interesting to read about a protest in Aberystwyth on Saturday, 11 March in which town mayor Dr Talat Chaudhri (Plaid Cymru) marched alongside people with paper bags and what looked like buckets on their heads. Just a week earlier, at its Spring Conference, Plaid had endorsed Adam Price’s call to be a junior partner in future coalitions.

So for a brief moment I wondered if Adam had done an electoral pact deal with Lord Buckethead of the Monster Raving Loony Party! But in fact this was a protest against Small Modular Reactors coming to Wales.

It’s unclear whether this is Plaid Cymru policy or not, because just last week in the Cambrian News it was reported that Liz Saville Roberts is calling for UK Government funding for a new radioisotope centre in Trawsfynydd. In fairness this is a Welsh Government scheme (Project Arthur), which could bring much needed investment to rural Wales as well as making the UK more independent in medical radioisotopes. Most people will ask “what’s not to like”?

The irony is that to create nuclear radioisotopes, you need a nuclear reactor. Which means that it might be sensible to generate some much needed power and electricity from it at the same time. In fact, a site like Trawsfynydd is ideal for SMRs, as indeed is Wylfa on Ynys Mon.

To an extent, people’s anxiety with nuclear power is understandable, particularly following Fukushima. But it’s worth remembering that we are lucky enough to live in a region of geological stability with no significant earthquakes or tsunamis. SMRs will produce a small volume of waste that will indeed need long term storage, but no system of power generation is without its environmental consequences. Batteries will need to be recycled and some waste (potentially quite toxic) stored. Solar panels take land out of production. Wind turbines aren’t great for birds and are unsightly to some. Solar and wind are both variable, not necessarily generating power when we need it.

Nuclear generated electricity is clean and green. If we want the lights to stay on and power our heat pumps, generating reliable base load is critical, and right now nuclear fission represents the only show in town. Embrace it or get left behind. And it seems crazy to be getting Chinese and French companies to build huge and as yet unproven reactors at Hinkley Point and Sizewell when we have established SMR expertise in the UK (Rolls Royce) just waiting to go.

If we don’t do this ourselves in the UK, American companies are ready and waiting and yet again we will see the high tech jobs go elsewhere, and the wealth creation opportunity squandered. Remember we need that wealth creation if we want great public services like healthcare.

Nuclear will also tie in with our important but unpredictable/variable renewables (wind and solar and maybe tidal). Excess baseload could be used to generate Green Hydrogen. JCB have a hydrogen engine in production now, with identical power output to diesel, but completely green (water comes out of the exhaust pipe).

Come on Wales! We need to be at the forefront of this rather than putting bags over our heads and watching another opportunity go down the drain. It’s time for all Welsh politicians to come together to seek the funding and break down the obstacles to making Wales a powerhouse.

Adam Price wants Plaid to be part of a coalition government here in Wales, but in the same breath he ruled out ever working with the Welsh Conservatives. In reality therefore he is supporting a one party state dominated by Welsh Labour. That’s the party that has been in power since devolution started, the party that seems to be failing in healthcare, infrastructure, high tech jobs etc, especially in rural West Wales.

So another benefit to come out of a world class nuclear industry in Wales might be a recognition that different political coalitions could work better, generating more prosperity and giving our young people the opportunities, jobs and homes they deserve whilst simultaneously supporting great public services.