The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) condemns ludicrous Sizewell C planning approval.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has expressed its
disappointment that “ludicrous” plans for a nuclear power plant near the
internationally-important RSPB Minsmere reserve have been approved. RSPB
chief executive Beccy Speight said: “The RSPB is extremely disappointed to
learn that the government has approved plans for Sizewell C, the proposed
new nuclear power station that will affect our nature reserve at Minsmere
in Suffolk.
East Anglian Daily Times 20th July 2022
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/business/rspb-condemns-ludicrous-sizewell-c-planning-approval-9157422
Against advice of the Planning Inspectorate the UK’s interim government gives go-ahead to Sizewell C nuclear power plant.
UK government gives go-ahead to Sizewell C nuclear power plant, Decision goes against advice of Planning Inspectorate, which rejected project owing to impact,
Guardian, Alex Lawson Energy correspondent, Thu 21 Jul 2022 ,
The UK government has given planning consent to the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.
The decision by the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, which had been repeatedly delayed, was finally announced on Wednesday and went against the advice of the independent Planning Inspectorate.
French energy company EDF wants to build the 3.2 GW, two-reactor plant next to its existing site at Sizewell B, which began operating in 1995.
However, the proposals have faced fierce opposition from local campaigners, who have argued against the project because of the environmental impact and the cost to energy billpayers. Campaigners now have six weeks to decide whether to appeal against the decision.
Planning permission was seen as a key hurdle for the project which remains subject to a further final investment decision, expected next year. It is hoped the plant can generate enough power for six million homes.
The approval process for Sizewell C has so far included four rounds of public consultation which began in 2012 and has involved more than 10,000 East Suffolk residents.
The Planning Inspectorate rejected the scheme because of concerns over the plant’s impact on protected species and habitats, and the long-term water supply at the site.
EDF worked with Chinese state-backed nuclear specialist CGN on the first phase of the project. However, it is understood the UK government is keen to ease CGN out amid concerns over Chinese involvement with sensitive assets.
Bankers at Barclays have been hired to secure new financial backing for the project alongside EDF and the UK government.
Boris Johnson’s government put £100m of funding behind the project in January to support its development………………………………………………..
Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign, said: “The wrong decision has been made but it’s not the end of our campaign to Stop Sizewell C. Not only will we be looking closely at appealing this decision, we’ll continue to challenge every aspect of Sizewell C, because – whether it is the impact on consumers, the massive costs and delays, the outstanding technical questions or the environmental impacts – it remains a very bad risk.”
Beccy Speight, the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: “The construction of the proposed development will be damaging and it has been granted with insufficient consideration for the effects on nature as described by the government’s own experts. This is a ludicrous decision for an interim government to make.”
Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Dr Doug Parr, called the project a “red herring energy solution” as the UK attempts to move towards a low-carbon energy system……………………
The French government said on Tuesday it was prepared to pay €10bn (£8.5bn) to fully nationalise EDF amid concerns over its finances. Ministers in France want to keep a handle on soaring energy bills.
Johnson has set a target of making investment decisions on eight new nuclear projects by the end of the decade. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/20/uk-government-gives-go-ahead-to-sizewell-c-nuclear-power-plant
All at Sea: Energy Security Bill reveals UK government preference to dump waste offshore
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/all-at-sea-energy-security-bill-reveals-government-preference-to-dump-waste-offshore/ 20 July 22, The Government has published a factsheet in support of the new Energy Security Bill which has confirmed the long-held suspicion of Britain’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities that the nuclear industry intends to dump its deadly legacy of radioactive waste out at sea.
Tucked away in this page-turner is a reference that could be missed on page seven revealing that with refence to the government stated ambition to Prepare for our nuclear future and clean up the past’, that ‘The Bill will also facilitate the safe, and cost-effective clean-up of the UK’s nuclear sites, ensuring the UK is a responsible nuclear state by clarifying that a geological disposal facility located deep below the seabed will be licensed.’[1]
That the intention is to dump the waste at a location out at sea has helpfully been made plain in the latest infomercial published by the Theddlethorpe GDF Community Partnership
20th July 2022
All at Sea: Energy Security Bill reveals government preference to dump waste offshore
The Government has published a factsheet in support of the new Energy Security Bill which has confirmed the long-held suspicion of Britain’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities that the nuclear industry intends to dump its deadly legacy of radioactive waste out at sea.
Tucked away in this page-turner is a reference that could be missed on page seven revealing that with refence to the government stated ambition to Prepare for our nuclear future and clean up the past’, that ‘The Bill will also facilitate the safe, and cost-effective clean-up of the UK’s nuclear sites, ensuring the UK is a responsible nuclear state by clarifying that a geological disposal facility located deep below the seabed will be licensed.’[1]
That the intention is to dump the waste at a location out at sea has helpfully been made plain in the latest infomercial published by the Theddlethorpe GDF Community Partnership
This latest plan to jeopardise the marine environment is par for the course for successive British Governments which, without a care for the ecology of British waters, have previously chosen to recklessly dump deadly munitions and poison gas into our oceans.
In November 2020, the NFLA published a horrifying report commissioned from marine pollution expert, Tim Deere-Jones, which revealed that evidence was mounting that around two million tons of unused wartime munitions were dumped in, or around, the Beaufort’s Dyke in the Irish Sea in the interwar and post-war years, up until at least the mid-1970’s.[2]
Alongside conventional explosives, this deadly legacy included at least 14,000 tons of phosgene gas and a cocktail of other nasties such as ‘canisters of chemical warfare agents including sarin, tabun, mustard gas, cyanide, … and the biological warfare agent anthrax’.
The New Scientist has reported instances of munitions washing up on Scottish beaches and the British Geological Survey confirmed that explosions generated by degrading munitions are a relatively frequent occurrence and that at least one of those explosions was observed to have generated an explosive force equivalent to approximately 5.5 tonnes of TNT.
The report also revealed that radioactive waste has previously been dumped into the Irish Sea, in the Beaufort’s Dyke, in the Firth of Tay and off the island of Arran, including radium-coated aircraft dials, laboratory waste, luminous paint and waste encased in concrete within metal drums.
Responding to the latest revelation, Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, said:
“Clearly then the Energy Security Bill demonstrates that once again the British Government’s plan is to dump its deadly legacy of high-level radioactive waste offshore whatever the long-term detriment to the marine environment and regardless of local and international opposition, and the Theddlethorpe Community Partnership diagram makes this intention writ large.
“The NFLA has far from convinced that however well engineered a nuclear waste dump, or Geological Disposal Facility as the nuclear industry likes to call it, is that the structure of such a facility will not become compromised over the 100,000 years it is required to hold waste whilst it remains radioactive. We fear that in future centuries we shall see radioactive waste poisoning our oceans and beaches.
“This is an especial issue of concern in West Cumbria, where three of the possible four current sites for the dump are under consideration; for here for generations Sellafield has been leaking its toxics into the Irish Sea.
“The NFLA will continue to oppose a GDF, especially one at sea. Our policy is to see radioactive waste properly monitored and managed in a near surface facility, rather than dumped out of sight, out of mind and forgotten about!”
For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email on richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk or mobile 07583097793
France’s costly nationalisation of the nuclear industry
The French government is poised to pay nearly €10bn (£8.5bn) to fully
nationalise EDF as ministers attempt to tackle the European energy crisis.
The French finance ministry said on Tuesday it had offered €9.7bn or
€12 a share to buy the 16% of debt-laden EDF it does not already own. The
government of the French prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, government is
trying to shore up domestic energy supplies amid concerns over the finances
of the energy company, which is also building the Hinkley Point C nuclear
power station in Somerset.
Guardian 19th July 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/19/france-to-pay-nearly-10bn-to-fully-nationalise-edf
Consultation on proposed changes to storage of radioactive wastes at Hinkley Point C NPP
The Environment Agency has launched a consultation on a proposed change to
the way radioactive waste will be stored at Hinkley Point C nuclear power
station near Bridgwater. Currently the Office for Nuclear Regulation
states: The waste will be stored on the Hinkley Point C site pending
availability of the GDF and the waste meeting the waste acceptance criteria
for the site (e.g. some heat generating radioactive waste may require
on-site storage until the thermal output has reduced).
Pressurised water reactors at Hinkley Point C will use uranium fuel to create heat and
generate electricity when operating. Once used within the reactor, nuclear
fuel will be stored on-site before being sent off-site to a Geological
Disposal Facility (GDF).
NNB Generation Company (HPC) Limited was
originally issued a radioactive substances environmental permit in 2013. In
the original design radioactive waste was to be stored on-site in ‘wet
storage’ – a method of submerging and storing in water. The operator has
now decided to change the technology by which it will store spent nuclear
fuel, from wet storage to ‘dry storage’.
Dry storage will see used nuclear fuel stored in sealed containers within a facility, before it is
sent to the GDF. This means the operator now seeks to change its
radioactive substances environmental permit to remove or amend specific
conditions related to the previous wet storage technology that are no
longer relevant. The operator has said altering the storage method will not
change the expected radiation dose to the general public from discharges or
the wider environment, which remains incredibly small. Separately, NNB
Generation Company (HPC) Limited will be seeking the necessary changes to
its Development Consent Order for Hinkley Point C in the autumn.
Somerset Live 20th July 2022
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/locals-urged-say-proposed-change-7351721
UK govt to decide on whether or not £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant should go ahead
A decision on whether to approve the building of a new £20bn nuclear
power plant is due later. The government was expected to make an
announcement about the application for Sizewell C in Suffolk two weeks ago.
Business minister Paul Scully said he had “set a new deadline of no later
than 20 July for deciding this application”. “This is to ensure there is
sufficient time to allow the secretary of state to consider the proposal,”
he said. The government was previously due to announce a planning decision
by 25 May, but it said it needed more time to look at new information and
it set a new deadline of 8 July.
BBC 20th July 2022
Anti-nuclear forces gather in Wales
Anti-nuclear campaigners are gathering forces against what they say is a
“repeated narrative” that nuclear energy is viable and helps create
more jobs. PAWB (People Against Wylfa B), CND Cymru, Nuclear Free Local
Authorities, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, CADNO, the Welsh Anti-Nuclear Alliance
and Beyond Nuclear have organised a conference in Caernarfon to air their
views.
North Dot Wales 20th July 2022
Greencoat Capital Investing might be turning yellow – swallowing the climate lies of the nuclear industry.
One of Europe’s largest renewable energy investors is considering
creating a nuclear investment fund to take a stake in three of EDF’s
nuclear plants, it has been reported. Greencoat Capital, which currently
has more than £6bn under management and plans to grow over the coming
years, is considering taking a stake in the proposed Sizewell C plant in
Suffolk, according to The Times. The fund could also be invested in the
ongoing Hinkley Point C build in Somerset and the existing Sizewell B
plant.
Construction News 18th July 2022 https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/buildings/sizewell-c-major-fund-mulls-investment-18-07-2022/
Millom and Haverigg being conned by nuclear industry over waste dump, claims former councillor.
A Millom resident, who recently resigned from her local council in disgust
at the shenanigans she witnessed, has claimed that the residents and
elected members of Millom and Haverigg and surrounding villages are
‘being conned’ with lies and false promises from Nuclear Waste Services
and some members of the local South Copeland GDF Community Partnership.
Only last month, Jan Bridget founded the Millom and District against the
Nuclear Dump campaign group as a voice for local people who are opposed to
the proposal to bring a nuclear waste dump to the South-West of Cumbria.
The waste dump or Geological Disposal Facility (as Nuclear Waste Services
prefers to call it) will be final resting place for the high-level
radioactive waste generated by Britain’s civil and military programmes
over the last seventy years.
One catalyst for local opposition has been
NWS’s plan to ‘sound blast’ the Irish Sea to determine if the geology
of the seabed could host the waste dump. Almost 50,000 individuals have
signed an online petition in opposition to the plan, whilst environmental
and conservation groups have registered their concerns that the health of
marine wildlife will be seriously compromised.
To date, the local and national authorities have been deaf to these objections. Over the last
month, the Millom and District group has become an effective local force
opposing plans for a dump. Nearly 400 local people have so far joined, and
members have been active with a protest by 19 local people outside an
NWS-organised community consultation event in Haverigg, and a door-to-door
delivery campaign completed with activists posting almost 5,000 leaflets
through letter boxes. As a member of Millom Town Council, Jan spoke up for
the objectors, but, from the hostile response she received from several
fellow Councillors involved with the Community Partnership, it soon became
clear that her lone voice was unwelcome in the council chamber, and the
atmosphere turned so toxic that Jan felt unable to stay.
NFLA 18th July 2022 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/millom-and-haverigg-being-conned-by-nuclear-industry-over-waste-dump-claims-former-councillor/
Heatwave? No, it’s a national emergency, disrupting lives and threatening our health.
Will Hutton: Heatwave? No, it’s a national emergency, disrupting lives and
threatening our health. The idea of climate change as a distant problem
won’t survive the next stifling week. Tomorrow, as we seek shelter from a
burning sun, climate change will feel all too real.
Britain has suffered ever more vicious storms and floods over the past few years but the next
couple of days will drive home the menacing discontinuity with our idea of
normal, a step change in our collective awareness. The expected heat –
temperatures that may exceed 40C warns the Met Office – are not only a
record, but life-threatening.
Only some 70 parliamentarians turned up to last week’s presentation on climate change led by Sir Patrick Vallance and other scientific officials. None of the Tory leadership candidates was
among them.
The accepted Tory wisdom, driven by its right, is that, at
best, climate change commitments should be deferred until the cost of
living crisis is over – at worst, they should be scaled back indefinitely
or wholly reframed.
Finally, at Friday’s Channel 4 debate, three candidates
publicly committed to the legally enshrined target of net zero by 2050:
Rishi Sunak, Tom Tugendhat and Penny Mordaunt. The right’s frontrunner, Liz
Truss, offered a commitment, but carefully not to a date; and Kemi
Badenoch, the insurgent candidate from the right, wanted the whole issue
reframed.
If Badenoch and Truss were to watch Vallance’s presentation, they
would surely change their view. Global temperatures are rising. So is the
cumulative amount of carbon in the atmosphere. The polar ice caps are
melting at bewildering and accelerating speed. Sea levels are increasing.
So are extreme weather events. All are unambiguously the result of human
influence, says the Met Office.
A global commitment to net zero by 2050
could limit the temperature rise to 1.5C. The right is massively out of
step with science, evolving public opinion and the business opportunities –
a triple whammy of misalignment that will prove deadly.
The science is incontestable. So is our daily experience. What is less discussed is how
acting presents a massive opportunity. Already the best in business and
finance are committed to net zero by 2050. In the City, argument rages
whether it’s best to disinvest completely from fossil fuel companies or to
support them as they transition to a new business model; what is accepted
in a world far from rightwing thinktanks, columnists and chat rooms is that
the change must be made.
On climate change scepticism, the right is
unambiguously wrong – it might not even prove the route to the Tory
leadership. It is certainly not the route to winning general elections.
Observer 16th July 2022
No end to nuclear costs for UK taxpayers
Varrie Blowers unpacks the impacts of the Nuclear Industry (Financing) Act
2022 in BANNG’s Regional Life column for June 2022.
Heard the fantasy about constructing an airport in the Thames estuary? And the one about
constructing a bridge from Scotland to Northern Ireland?
Well, there is a new fantasy going the rounds: that eight new nuclear power stations will be
constructed in the UK in the next decade. And where is the Government proposing to obtain the huge sums required for construction? From your pocket, of course! Under the Nuclear Industry (Financing) Act, 2022, it is intended that in order to attract investors a levy will be added to consumers’ energy bills to pay the upfront costs. Energy Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, thinks this will be ‘a small amount’ but at this time of
soaring energy bills seems unable to reveal the actual figure. And, on top of this, taxpayers will be paying £1.7bn to enable a large-scale nuclear
plant to achieve a final investment decision in this Parliament.
BANNG 13th June 2022
Nearly 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for a full council debate and vote on the plans for seismic testing in the Irish Sea.
Anti-nuclear waste campaigners have protested over plans for seismic
testing in the Irish Sea. The research, which uses sound waves, is being
carried out to determine if the seabed contains suitable geology for
underground nuclear waste storage. Mid and South Copeland are among areas
in the UK mooted for what is known as a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
Nearly 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for a full council
debate and vote on the plans.
BBC 13th July 2022
Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) finds shortfalls in EDF’s cybersecurity plans
French energy giant EDF has been placed under ‘enhanced attention’ by the
UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) after identifying shortfalls in
its cybersecurity plans, according to reports this weekend.
The ONR is
taking action due to the findings of routine inspections over the past 12
months. The Telegraph newspaper quoted the body as saying it had
“identified shortfalls in governance, risk and compliance in certain
technical controls” during these inspections. EDF owns and runs the UK’s
network of nuclear power stations at five locations and is currently
building a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, together
with minority Chinese partner CGN.
The action takes place against a
backdrop of increased awareness of the vulnerability of energy
infrastructure around Europe to cyber-attack. In particular, Russia has
been blamed for cyber-attacks on both windfarms and nuclear power plants in
Europe as part of its invasion of Ukraine.
Info Security 11th July 2022
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/edf-scrutiny-cybersecurity-record/
Les Echos 11th July 2022
Scotland not impressed with UK Tory government’s enthusiasm for nuclear power
THE Scottish Government has rejected UK Energy Minister Greg Hands plea to “rethink” its stance on new nuclear power stations in Scotland. The Tory minister said it’s a “great pity” Scotland has opposed the construction of any fission power plants amid the cost of living crisis and that he would be willing to sit down with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Energy Secretary Michael Matheson to hear their concerns.
It has been a longstanding Scottish Government and SNP policy to oppose nuclear, with the focus instead on the just transition to renewables.
Hands made the comments during a round table with Scottish journalists in London, where he also said there was no reason to re-assess licences for fossil fuel projects in the North Sea – despite persistent warnings from the United Nations on any more oil and gas fields being brought into production.
Scottish Net Zero Secretary Matheson has previously said safety concerns are the main reason the government has rejected any new nuclear sites, adding that “it is probably the most expensive form of electricity you can choose to produce”.
Following the closure of Hunterston B in North Ayrshire in January, due to cracks found in graphite bricks which make up the reactor core, the only functioning nuclear power station in Scotland is the Torness plant near Dunbar, East Lothian.
The UK Government has said it will not “impose” any new nuclear power on Scotland despite
plans to approve up to eight new fission reactors –by 2030, boosting overall capacity up to 24GW by 2050. But Hands has insisted the Scottish government should reconsider its stance.
When The National pointed out that nuclear power is expensive, takes a long time to be brought online and produces harmful toxic waste, Hands said: “This country has an amazing
safety record when it comes to nuclear. …………………..
. Maggie Chapman, the Scottish Greens MSP for North East Scotland, criticised his comments and said that renewables are “cheaper, cleaner and safer” than nuclear, and are easier to scale up.
She said: “Time and again the Tories have shown that they cannot be trusted with our environment. Nuclear power is neither safe nor reliable, and it leaves a toxic legacy that could last for centuries. “As Hinkley Point shows us, it is also very expensive. Any expansion would take years, and need to be paid for on top of skyrocketing bills.
The National 11th July 2022
New Energy Security Bill waters down regulation for fusion, warns Nuclear Free Local Authorities
As the Nuclear Free Local Authorities have feared, following a pre-Christmas BEIS consultation, the Johnson Government has recently revealed its plans to relax the regulatory regime applicable to future fusion reactors by choosing not to classify them as ‘nuclear installations’.
Fission nuclear reactors are subject to nuclear site licencing requirements overseen by the Office of Nuclear Regulation under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (NIA 1965), but government ministers have now decided that fusion plants should instead be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency like other industrial facilities. The new Energy Security Bill just introduced to Parliament by the Business Secretary will exclude fusion reactors from the provisions of the NIA 1965.
Ministers claim that fusion does not present the same ‘higher hazards’ found in fission plants, but the NFLA fears that their decision is about making the UK attractive to investors in their haste to make the UK a ‘fusion industry superpower’ rather than prioritising public safety.
In its response to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) consultation, the NFLA had called for ‘no watering down’ of the regime, challenging the notion that fusion was largely without risk.
For research commissioned by the NFLA revealed that fusion would result in the production of large quantities of radioactive waste, with the risk that radioactive tritium could enter the water supply. Fusion also requires immense temperatures, hotter than the sun, to spark and sustain a fusion reaction and this energy must be safely contained using challenging and unproven engineering solutions. Operation would also result in the whole structure being subjected to prolonged exposure to neutron radiation, a situation which if not carefully monitored could result in the very integrity of the reactor vessel being placed in jeopardy.
The Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, Councillor David Blackburn, said: “The NFLA’s view is that the government’s decision is misguided. It seems blasé to treat a fusion plant for regulatory purposes in the same way as a factory making chemical products. Fusion presents some of the same hazards and challenges as fission, but some are new; surely then fusion is nuclear and so a plant utilizing this technology must be a ‘nuclear installation’.
“In the view of the NFLA, there is no logical reason on safety grounds not to apply the same regulatory regime to fusion reactors as fission reactors. By signalling through the Energy Security Act their determination to exclude fusion from the rigours of the licencing regime, it seems clear that the present government is more focused on reducing the regulatory and cost burden on investors and commercial operators entering the market, putting expediency and profits before public safety.”
On waste management and decommissioning, the government’s position is even more unclear with ministers calling it ‘premature’ to outline clear proposals at this time, something the NFLA is especially perturbed about.
Councillor Blackburn added: “It is a shame that ministers have missed a trick by refusing to state clearly that future operators will have to share a greater burden of the cost of decommissioning and waste management, rather than passing the bill to the Nuclear Liabilities Fund and ultimately the British taxpayer.”
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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