nuclear-news

The first of hundreds of consignments of allegedly radioactive mud from the Somerset coast (adjacent to the Hinkley Point nuclear power station) was deposited off Penarth last night under cover of darkness.

The curious looking Belgian motor-hopper Sloeber made her first round trip from Hinkley Point to the Cardiff Grounds – a mile off shore from Penarth. She then  opened-up her belly underwater to disgorge thousands of tonnes of mud on one massive “bowel movement” –   last night .

Although the Conservative-run Vale of Glamorgan Council has protested about the mud dumping scheme, not a single Labour Assembly member, councillor or MP has raised a so much as a peep of protest about what is easily the worst-ever case of deliberate pollution ever witnessed in Wales.

Last night the Belgian hopper MV Sloeber – loaded with 2,000 tonnes of mud dredged from the sea bed adjacent to 3 Somerset nuclear power stations – sailed around the far side of the Monkstone light and skirted the sandbanks. As night fell she turned to port and headed directly towards Penarth,  pausing just a mile offshore to dump her controversial cargo into the shallow sea of the “Cardiff Grounds” – which up to now have only been used to deposit dredged mud from the approach channel to Cardif Docks .

Sloeber’s party trick is to split herself open from stem to stern with both halves of the ship opening up wide below the waterline to allow her cargo of mud to fall out of the ship under its own considerable weight .

In 3 months or so, when  all the thousands of tonnes of  mud from Hinkley Point have been dumped in the sea in Welsh waters,  the French energy company EDF will be able to wash its hands of all responsibility for this material and whatever lurks within it.

…As of last night the first consignment of English ‘nuclear mud’ become Wales’s problem.  The mud dropped from the belly of MV Sloeber last night will soon be washed ashore on the coastline between Penarth  and Lavernock – and could permanently change the shoreline.

Experts say the consequences of this operation – which involves the dumping of over 320,000 tonnes of English nuclear mud in Welsh Waters – may not become apparent for generations.

Meanwhile Sloeber returned to Hinkley Point to load more mud for another visit to Wales later today.