Sizewell nuclear plant to take 20 years to build, emitting 5.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
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Times 25th Aug 2020 A proposed new nuclear plant in Suffolk could take six years to offset the greenhouse gas
emissions generated in its construction, EDF has admitted. The French energy group estimates that 5.7 million tonnes
of carbon dioxide will be emitted in the nine to twelve years that it will take to build the Sizewell C plant. It argues
that this is “small in comparison to the savings that would be achieved once the power station becomes operational,
when the station will be displacing more carbon-intensive energy from the national grid”.
In publicity material, EDF claims that Sizewell C will “save nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for every
year of its operation”, based on it replacing gas-fired power plants. However, in planning documents it admits that
the actual savings may be far lower. By the time that the proposed plant is built, Britain’s power mix is expected to
be far greener, as more wind and solar farms are built.
Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said this meant that it would be 2040 before the plant was “making a positive
contribution to the UK’s net zero targets . . . EDF’s revelation that it will be 20 years before Sizewell C is built and has
paid off the carbon from its construction exposes what a hopeless — as well as expensive and risky — solution it is to
our urgent climate crisis.” National Grid has said that it plans to be able to run Britain’s power network with entirely
“zero carbon” electricity by 2025 whenever there is sufficient renewable generation to do so — well before Sizewell
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