It would take two years to revive the Horizon nuclear project at Wylfa Newydd, and a ‘regulated asset base’ model would not fully provide a framework to allow for investment. Fundamentally it needs an upfront commitment from government in its upcoming White Paper to replace nuclear capacity with new nuclear: without that potential investors will not join the project.

That was the conclusion from Duncan Hawthorne, Horizon chief executive, speaking at the Nuclear Industry Association’s New Build conference.