nuclear-news

Sizewell C Nuclear not just a waste of money – a waste of time, too!

Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) 10 June, 25, https://www.banng.info/news/press-releases/10-june-2025/

The Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) agrees with Stop Sizewell C that the proposed new Sizewell C nuclear power station is ‘HS2 Mark 2’. But the public is seldom told about another, much more expensive – and dangerous – waste arising from new nuclear development: toxic high-level radioactive wastes.

The Government has announced that £14BN of public money will be spent over the next four years on the construction of Sizewell C (SZC) new nuclear power station in Suffolk. The amount of taxpayers’ money to be expended at the end of that period is not mentioned, nor is the actual levy to be placed on energy bills to pay for the construction.

The belief of Secretary of State for Net Zero, Ed Miliband, that SZC will be built in a decade flies in the face of the large body of evidence that shows construction of new nuclear power stations runs well over time and over budget. Hinkley Point C (HPC), on which Sizewell C is based, was estimated to cost £16BN in 2012 and to be cooking the Christmas turkey in 2017. Current estimates are £46BN, with operations starting in 2031 (at the earliest).

But there is another type of waste even more expensive than the construction costs of nuclear power stations and one that the public will be paying for way into the far future: the storage of toxic high-level radioactive wastes. The public is seldom told that these will be stored on site until at least the middle of the next century, partly to cool down before they can be moved. But moved to where? There is currently no national repository in sight for new build reactors like Sizewell C and there may never be.

The £14BN package will also cover the construction of Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and the Bradwell site, unfortunately, remains a remote possibility for these. But SMRs have the same problems as major new nuclear stations. And don’t be fooled they will be anything but small!

Varrie Blowers, Secretary of BANNG, says: ‘Building one or more SMRs at Bradwell is inconceivable. The site will be wiped out by Climate Change. It is far too remote with no good grid connections. Above all the Blackwater communities and Councils are as resolutely opposed today as they have been for many years.

“As far as public finances are concerned, nuclear power stations, large or small, are not just for life, but forever.”

June 14, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes