Hitachi have suspended work on a new nuclear development project at Wylfa Newydd in Anglesey over rising costs.
The company have been in discussions with the Government since June 2018 about project funding but the two have failed to agree terms.
If the £13 billion plant would if scrapped, place thousands of jobs at risk. It was anticipated around 9,000 workers would be involved at the building of two nuclear reactors at the sire which were due to be operational by the mid-2020s.
Ken Skates, Wales Economy Secretary hopes that the plan won't be scrapped entirely, he said: ''If it is paused then work must begin immediately across governments and with local government and with the business community in ensuring that there are job opportunities in the short term whilst we find a new investor for the project.''
The site at Wylfa Newydd was identified as one of six sites for the most significant wave of new nuclear power construction globally. Only one of these sites is currently under construction, with another three abandoned.
Currently there are eight nuclear power sites in the UK that are generating power, and only one of those eight will be operational by 2030. The GMB Union have warned of ''the very real prospect of a UK energy crisis''.
Duncan Hawthorne, Chief Executive officer of Horizon Nuclear Power, the wholly owned Hitachi subsidiary behind the Anglesey scheme, said:
''We have been in close discussions with the UK Government, in cooperation with the government of Japan, on the financing and associated commercial arrangements for our project for some years now. I am very sorry to say that despite the best efforts of everyone involved we’ve not been able to reach an agreement to the satisfaction of all concerned.
"As a result we will be suspending the development of the Wylfa Newydd project until a solution can be found. In the meantime, we will take steps to reduce our presence but keep the option to resume development in future. Clearly this will have a significant impact for all involved with our project.
"We will also engage closely with the many international and UK-based stakeholders who have strongly supported the project’s development, especially our lead host community of Anglesey, represented by the Isle of Anglesey County Council and Welsh government.''
The CBI's chief UK policy director, Matthew Fell, said: ''The government has to demonstrate it is committed to meeting our climate change targets by supporting new low-carbon power supply. The loss of new nuclear projects could leave us more heavily dependent in the long run on fossil fuels, which could risk our legally binding climate targets.''
The Government have said they have a range of options available for meeting future energy demand, including renewables, storage, interconnectors, new nuclear and more.
A Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) spokesperson commented: ''As the Business Secretary (Greg Clark) set out in June, any deal needs to represent value for money and be the right one for UK consumers and taxpayers. Despite extensive negotiations and hard work by all sides, the government and Hitachi are unable to reach agreement to proceed at this stage.'' They also added that the land at the proposed site for the Wylfa Newydd project was owned by Hitachi, and they had indicated the company wished to retain ownership while it discussed future options with the government.
