Chaotic discussion on nuclear waste proposal for UK’s Allerdale region
A fortnight is a long time in politics, to slightly misquote former Prime
Minister Harold Wilson. Allerdale Working Group came out of the shadows to
meet a Stakeholder group on 17 August. That was the beginning of a chaotic
fortnight. At that meeting, Andy Ross, the individual who volunteered the
whole of Allerdale excluding the Lake District (where he lives) as a site
to bury the nation’s nuclear waste, was questioned.
He was asked why he
had chosen to exclude the Lake District National Park (LDNP), but not to
exclude the Solway Coast AONB. He said that he had chosen to exclude the
LDNP as Copeland had done the same, but that it may become part of the
search area again in the next stage of the process, known as the Community
Partnership.
This was a hugely controversial statement. It went against
everything said previously, but the rest of Allerdale Working Group did not
seek to correct it, they all listened and accepted the statement without
comment.
The next week, members of Cumbria Trust questioned the Chair of
Allerdale Working Group, Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong about the possible
re-inclusion of the LDNP. Rather than seek to correct this, she complained
that Cumbria Trust were not respecting the privacy of that earlier meeting,
which in itself was an absurd comment.
You cannot announce a major change
in policy – the re-inclusion of the LDNP as a potential site to bury
nuclear waste, and expect that to remain a secret.
RWM set about
fabricating an excuse for what was said. RWM’s response was entirely
disingenuous and intentionally misleading. Eddie Martin, former Leader of
Cumbria County Council has written to RWM to challenge their behaviour.
Here is the text of that letter:
“We were frequently promised an ’open
and transparent’ process by RWM and I’m afraid your email to me on 27
August falls a long way short of that goal, as do the responses from others
in your organisation to Colin Wales and your emails to the Allerdale
Stakeholder Group … This may be a 20 year search process. For it to
succeed, the public has to develop and maintain a high level of trust and
yet RWM have fallen at the first hurdle.”
Cumbria Trust 31st Aug 2021
‘Critical issues’ with Sizewell C plans to be discussed at public hearings
‘Critical issues’ with Sizewell C plans to be discussed at public hearings https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/sizewell-c-september-2021-hearings-8274260Andrew Papworth0 August 26, 2021 “Critical issues” with plans for a new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast – including the impact building work would have on residents – are to be discussed at public hearings.
The Planning Inspectorate is holding a series of Issue Specific Hearings on EDF Energy’s bid to build Sizewell C as part of its formal examination of proposals for a new twin-reactor.
Hearings have been taking place this week, with another four days of hearings scheduled to take place at Snape Maltings in mid-September.
The first day on Tuesday, September 14 will look at flood risk and water supply issues, while the following day will examine the “potential adverse effects on human health and living conditions of local residents during construction”.
The hearings on Thursday, September 16 will look at landscape and heritage issues, including “potential adverse effects on heritage assets forming part of the Heveningham Hall estate and National Trust Coastguard Cottages”.
The code of practice for the construction of the site will be assessed on Friday, September 17.
A spokesman for EDF Energy said: “We are pleased the hearings are going ahead, as they will allow the examining authority to continue to explore all our proposals and enable all interested parties to participate.”
But Paul Collins, chairman of the Stop Sizewell C campaign group, said: “We are well over two-thirds of the way through the Sizewell C examination, which has exposed many serious failings in EDF’s application.
“There are still a number of critical issues to be heard.
“Whether or not the Planning Inspectorate will agree with our MP’s recommendation that the examination is extended remains to be seen, although we note EDF’s latest financial report is now hinting that a secretary of state decision is due ‘mid-2022’ as opposed to April 2022, which suggests that they at least are expecting this.”
Once the examination process is concluded, an inspector will make a recommendation to government as to whether the nuclear plant should go ahead or not.
Sizewell C had delayed the original submission of the planning application by two months and extended the period of public registration due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This had followed eight years of public consultation to form the proposals for the new power station.
The meetings will be live-streamed and also available to watch afterwards.
Anti-nuclear campaigners slam plans to install new nuclear reactors in Wales
Anti-nuclear campaigners slam plans to install new nuclear reactors in Wales, NATION CYMRU, 27 Aug 2021 Anti-nuclear campaigners in Wales have criticised the Welsh Government for supporting “flawed and outdated” technology amid plans to install new reactors in Wales.
It was revealed on Wednesday that Mike Tynan, former head of UK operations at US nuclear engineering group Westinghouse, has been recruited by the Welsh Government to head up their nuclear company Cwmni Egino with the aim of resurrecting the Trawsfynydd site.
Both Trawsfynydd and the Wylfa site on Anglesey are being discussed as possible locations for small modular reactors at existing nuclear sites.
But anti-nuclear campaign groups PAWB and CADNO said that the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd should be a focus for the development of renewable and sustainable technologies.
Trawsnfynydd is already the site of the decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station that ran between 1965 and 1991.
PAWB and CADNO said that once again hopes for work for local people will be raised, with few substantive promises.
“There is not enough proof that the technology will have been developed enough to make a difference in the critical fight against climate change in time,” they said.
“In addition, limited public resources that support nuclear mean that those resources are not available to truly green and sustainable technologies.
Climate change, homelessness, poverty, inequality – these are the complex problems of our time. The nuclear obsession does nothing to solve these problems; it adds to them. ”……………….. https://nation.cymru/news/anti-nuclear-campaigners-slam-plans-to-install-new-nuclear-reactors-in-wales/
Communities react with shock to news they are being considered as locations for nuclear waste facility
Nuclear storage plans for north of England stir up local opposition
Communities react with shock to news they are being considered as locations for underground facility, Guardian, Tommy GreeneTue 24 Aug 2021 The long-running battle to build an underground nuclear waste facility in the north of England has run into fresh problems, as communities reacted with shock to the news that they were being considered as locations.
The north-east port town of Hartlepool is one of the sites in the frame as a potential site for a geological disposal facility (GDF), while a former gas terminal point at Theddlethorpe, near the Lincolnshire coast, is another. Cumbria, where much of the waste is stored above ground, is also being considered.
Victoria Atkins, a government minister and the MP for Louth and Horncastle, said she was “stunned” by the prospect that her constituency could host a GDF, claiming that the Conservative-controlled Lincolnshire county council’s engagement with the government’s radioactive waste management group had been kept hidden from her.
The facility is intended to deal with the long-running problem of nuclear waste storage by providing a safe deposit for approximately 750,000 cubic metres of high-activity waste hundreds of metres underground in areas thought to have suitable geology to securely isolate the radioactive material. The waste would be solidified, packaged and placed into deep subterranean vaults. The vaults would then be backfilled and the surrounding network of tunnels and chambers sealed……….
Between 70% and 75% of the UK’s high-activity radioactive waste, which would be designated for the GDF, is stored at the Sellafield facility in west Cumbria. The sources of the waste include power generation, military, medical and civil uses.
Existing international treaties prohibit countries from exporting the waste overseas, leading some scientists to argue for underground burial that, they say, would require no further human intervention once storage is complete……………
the proposals have stirred up strong local feeling among both community leaders and residents, and accusations of secrecy have been levelled at councils and the RWM in recent weeks.
In north-east England, the political fallout generated by news of the GDF “early stage” discussions triggered the resignation of Hartlepool council’s deputy leader, Mike Young, on Tuesday evening.
“We are making huge strides in Hartlepool and across Teesside and Darlington,” the Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, said following the decision. “And the last thing we need as we sell our region to the world is to be known as the dumping ground for the UK’s nuclear waste.”
Cumbria county council, which resisted the last efforts to site a GDF locally in 2013, has declined to take part in either of the two existing working groups, saying its involvement would give the process “a credibility it doesn’t deserve”.
There is already considerable opposition from local groups. “The vast majority of people here are horrified by the GDF,” said Jane Bright, a Mablethorpe resident and spokesperson for the Guardians of the East Coast campaign. “I should think it’s no more welcome elsewhere. But there’s a lot of pride in this area and we’ll fight this for as long as it takes.”
Marianne Birkby, a Cumbrian resident and founder of the Radiation-Free Lakeland group, said: “We’re seen as the line of least resistance here. In Cumbria, we’ve been there before with this. Now people are now trying to get their heads around it again, in the middle of a pandemic. This dump would essentially make us a sacrifice zone to the nuclear industry.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/23/nuclear-storage-plans-for-north-of-england-stir-up-local-opposition
Greater powers to be given to UK’s armed Civil Nuclear Constabulary – a threat to peaceful protest?
UK Government plan to give armed nuclear police more powers raises ‘profound concerns The Ferret, ’Billy Briggs
August 23, 2021
A UK Government plan to give an armed police force called the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) greater powers has raised “profound concerns” and been described as “deeply worrying”.
The CNC is a specialist force tasked with protecting civil nuclear sites in Scotland, England and Wales and nuclear materials in transit both in the UK and internationally.
Counter-terrorism is a major part of its policing and the force employs 1,500 police officers. The CNC guards nuclear sites at Torness, Hunterston and Dounreay in Scotland, among other places across the UK.
It’s remit is set out in the Energy Act 2004 but the UK Government has just held a consultation seeking views on a plan to expand and diversify the force’s role.
Anti-nuclear groups have voiced fears over the proposal, however, arguing that the CNC’s remit should be limited to civil nuclear sites. The Scottish Greens said that centralised control over an armed police force with new powers would be a “very concerning development”…………..
Those responding to the consultation included the UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) which submitted a joint response with anti-nuclear groups – Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group, Together Against Sizewell C, CADNO, People Against Wylfa B, Stop Hinkley and Nuclear Waste Advisory Associates.
The NFLA argued that the CNC’s powers should be “limited to civil nuclear sites, as its title implies”. Any expansion to other roles and duties for the CNC, they argued, would “represent an expansion of nuclear police at expense of the civil police force”
Councillor David Blackburn, NFLA steering committee chair, said: “NFLA has joined with these six other campaigning groups to raise its profound concerns that an expansion of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and an increase in its powers is moving it in the wrong direction. What is required rather is concerted efforts to reduce the risks of the UK’s nuclear legacy and to avoid developing new nuclear reactor sites.”
He argued that by making nuclear sites safer “there will become less of a need for an armed police force”.
“The concerning wider push for new laws which could reduce peaceful protest also greatly concerns us,” Blackburn said. “The proposals in this consultation move the CNC further into being an extensively armed police force, when we should instead be looking at ways to have a democratically controlled and accountable police force protecting the public in a measured way.”……… https://theferret.scot/uk-government-plan-to-give-armed-police-more-powers/
Scotland could be dragged into an accelerating nuclear arms race
| George Kerevan: How Scotland could be dragged into an accelerating nuclear arms race. ON Saturday, All Under One Banner will hold a demonstration against nuclear weapons at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, home to Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet. This will be the first major anti-nuke demo since the outbreak of Covid-19. The protest by a group best known for its big independence marches is also backed by Scottish CND. This convergence of the national and nuclear issues is no accident. The west’s debacle in Afghanistan has opened a dangerous new phase in global politics. Any Scottish independence referendum will take place against a background of rising international tensions that must intrude in our domestic debate. The National 23rd Aug 2021 https://www.thenational.scot/politics/19530331.george-kerevan-scotland-dragged-accelerating-nuclear-arms-race/ |
Greenham Common’s renowned Women’s Peace Camp, the world’s longest-running anti-nuclear demonstration
Greenham Common 40 years on – when ordinary women drove nuclear weapons
out of UK. Three Welsh protesters reveal what they learnt after being part
of the renowned Women’s Peace Camp, the world’s longest-running
anti-nuclear demonstration, forty years ago in Berkshire.
Mirror 21st Aug 2021
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/greenham-common-40-years-ordinary-24809222
Secretive process of Allerdale Working Group studying potential dump sites for UK’s vast stockpile of nuclear waste
Allerdale Working Group met behind closed doors in July and decided which
parts of Allerdale may become the burial site for the UK’s vast stockpile
of nuclear waste.
Cumbria Trust was refused permission to be involved in
the site selection, and Allerdale Working Group is still refusing to reveal
its choice to us as that’s how the rules of the process have been
arbitrarily defined.
The similarities with the previous failed process,
MRWS, are clear. When the geological screening report didn’t produce the
outcome they would have preferred, they supressed it, only to release an
amended version 3 months later in which the Solway Plain had switched from
excluded to included. As with the current process, these meetings and
deliberations were hidden from the public gaze.
Cumbria Trust 21st Aug 2021
GDF – LDNP Back in the mix?
If children are to live with the climate crisis, we must green the curriculum
If children are to live with the climate crisis, we must green the curriculum, Guardian, Meryl Batchelder,
It’s clear to me when I teach that sustainability and the environment should be a thread running through every subject
Thu 19 Aug 2021 ”……………….. With so much focus on children – the ones who will have to live with the coming ecological disaster – the role of education is key. This summer has seen unprecedented wildfires and floods. Pupils see scenes of biblical devastation on the news, but in many schools they are not being given the required information or context and this can lead to misunderstanding or anxiety.
……………. There is still no mention of the climate crisis in the national curriculum for England in primary schools, and in key stage 3 science very little of the curriculum relates to climate education. Incredibly, the last major update to the national geography curriculum for England in 2013 saw the then education secretary, Michael Gove, attempt to drop climate change.
………….. So what needs to change? We need a green curriculum that starts in early years and extends through all key stages. Properly taught, climate change education should be a thread through all subjects – not just science and geography – from the food miles of the ingredients we cook in food technology to debates on humanitarian issues such as mass migration in religious education or personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.
Working in a state school means I am duty bound to teach lessons within the confines of the national curriculum. As far as this allows, I have sought to enrich my pupils’ learning with fieldwork, hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) challenges and even gardening. But not every school has the resources or expertise to bring climate education into the classroom. Earlier this year, the climate education campaign group Teach the Future reported that seven in 10 UK teachers say they have not received adequate training to educate their students on the climate crisis……….. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/19/children-climate-crisis-green-curriculum-sustainability-environment—
As renewable energy powers ahead, the UK government’s prospects for funding nuclear power projects look very risky
China’s cash for UK nuclear plants is in doubt https://climatenewsnetwork.net/chinas-cash-for-uk-nuclear-plants-is-in-doubt/
August 16th, 2021, by Paul Brown Cooler Sino-British relations mean China’s cash for UK nuclear plants is at risk
LONDON, 16 August, 2021 − A serious stumbling block now threatens the prospect of China’s cash for UK nuclear plants materialising − and also the likelihood of a successful outcome to COP26, the global climate conference which the British government is due to host later this year.
In order to finance the construction of nuclear stations that are supposed to generate up to 20% of the UK’s electricity, the British government needs Chinese money. Without it, the already prohibitively expensive projects may become completely unaffordable.
Neither the deeply indebted French government-owned company EDF, which is building two stations, each with twin reactors, nor the UK government is prepared to underwrite the entire cost of the projects. This is because of the huge sums required − around £45 billion (US$62bn).
However, the UK government faces severe political pressure to end Chinese involvement, because of the perceived threat of ceding control over vital services such as the electricity supply.
Problematic deal
The problem for Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, is particularly acute as Britain is hosting COP26, this year’s UN climate conference, in Glasgow in November. Relations between the UK and China are already poor, in part because of disputes over democratic freedoms for the people of Hong Kong.
But with China the world’s largest carbon emitter, Johnson needs it onside if he is to have a chance of making COP26 the success it must be to avert catastrophic climate change.
The problem over funding the nuclear programme arises because of a deal struck in 2015 between the then British prime minister, David Cameron, and China’s president Xi Jinping.
That agreed that China would stump up one third of the £23bn ($32bn) cost of the Hinkley C nuclear power station in the West of England, and also pay 20% of the cost of another planned station, Sizewell C, on the east coast. In return the Chinese could then build a nuclear plant of their own design at Bradwell B in Essex, closer to London, and use it as a platform to export their Hualong HPR1000 reactor technology to the rest of the world
To President Xi the cost of helping to fund the French company to build nuclear stations in Britain was outweighed by the advantage of getting Chinese technology validated in the UK as a bridge to future exports.
Six years later, however, with the Hinkley Point project well under way and Sizewell C supposedly close to launch, the British government is now nervous about allowing the Chinese such a strong involvement in the UK’s nuclear secrets and the nation’s power supply.
Its dilemma, though, is that if the UK reneges on its 2015 agreement, then China could abandon both projects, leaving a financial black hole of many billions of pounds. Trades unions are horrified at the potential loss of jobs the possible cancellation of the projects would cause.
One alternative to Chinese funding is a UK nuclear tax which would be paid in advance by electricity users to fund the construction of the power stations. With power bills already due to rise by more than 10% in Britain before the end of 2021, this is unlikely to be an electorally popular solution.
Renewable competition
What will happen is anyone’s guess. Given Johnson’s well-known habit of postponing difficult decisions, and the looming COP26, it is likely that nothing will be announced until the crucial Glasgow talks are over. The French, in anticipation, have already announced that they are postponing the “final investment decision” on Sizewell C until next year.
Meanwhile the renewable energy industry, particularly offshore wind, is powering ahead with a massive construction programme. Its projects will all produce electricity far more cheaply than any of the UK’s proposed new nuclear stations.Last ditch attempts by the nuclear industry to put a green gloss on its proposals by persuading ministers that its spare electricity capacity can be used to make green hydrogen seem unlikely to succeed.Perhaps in time it will become obvious to Johnson that if banning Chinese involvement in British nuclear plants means they end up not being built that will be a bonus, because cheaper renewable energy will soon be available to fill any perceived gap in supply. − Climate News Network
Chinese nuclear power firm CGN could be pushed out of UK’s Bradwell nuclear power project – and then what?
Could CGN be pushed out of the UK’s nuclear industry? The Conservative backwoodsman MPs smell blood on China. They have already reversed Government policy and banned Huawei from involvement in rolling out the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications networks.
They now intend to stop another Chinese firm, CGN, from showcasing its HPR1000 technology when building a replacement nuclear power station at Bradwell in Essex. The MPs will achieve this by amending the forthcoming National Security and Investment Bill.
Trouble is, CGN already has contracts signed to part-fund nuclear power stations together with Electricité de France, at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk. In both cases, the Chinese have absolutely key engineering roles, with know-how not easily replaced.
The big question is: if CGN were kicked out of Bradwell, whether they would also walk away from the other two projects. Of course in doing so, they would then be in breach of many existing contractual obligations. But, in
such circumstances, good luck with suing the Chinese government.
Electrical Review 16th Aug 2021
Could CGN be pushed out of the UK’s nuclear industry?
200 million fish + millions of other sea creatures will be killed by cooling systems of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C nuclear power stations
The high fatality rate which the cooling systems of two British nuclear
power stations may impose on marine life is worrying environmentalists, who
describe the heavy fish toll they expect as “staggering”.
The twonstations, Hinkley Point C, under construction on England’s west coast,
and Sizewell C, planned for the eastern side of the country, will, they
say, kill more than 200 million fish a year and destroy millions more sea
creatures.
But the stations’ builders say their critics are exaggerating
drastically. In a detailed rebuttal of the objectors’ arguments, Cefas
denies any conflict of interest between advising EDF about the damage the
stations would do to the marine environment and its own duty to protect
fish stocks – and it claims that the loss of millions of fish would not
affect stocks overall.
Good Men Project 16th Aug 2021
UK Nuclear Plants Will Exact Heavy Fish Toll
Dungeness area in England set to go underwater as global heating continues
The Kent beaches set to be wiped out in 30 years because of climate
change. New data suggests that large parts of Kent could regularly fall
below sea level by the year 2050. The southern side of Kent looks to be
greatly impacted, with the entire Dungeness area to be underwater.
Kent Live 15th Aug 2021
https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/kent-beaches-set-wiped-out-5789954
UK’s Marine Management Organisation gives the OK for dumping Hinkley radioactive trash in the Bristol Channel
A nuclear power station’s application to deposit hundreds of thousands
of tonnes of sediment as part of works taking place in the Bristol Channel
has been given the go-ahead.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO), a
government agency which serves to protect and enhance [???] UK marine environment
and sustainable marine activities, has allowed a variation to a marine
licence to Hinkley Point C. This permits the power station to carry out
dredging and disposal of mud at the existing Portishead disposal site in
the Bristol Channel.
North Somerset Times 17th Aug 2021
Where’s the water coming from? In dry East Anglia, EDF has no solution for Sizewell nuclear power’s insatiable thirst.
EDF have announced yet another consultation, running for 3 weeks from 3rd to 27th August, this time it’s …Where’s the water coming from? One would think after nearly a decade of planning and many questions on ‘Where’s the Water coming from?’ EDF would have this sorted but NO.
Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water have announced they cannot supply the ever increasing amounts of water needed to build SZC and will need several years to install over 20km of piping from the River Waveney to the site. We all know East Anglia is one of the driest areas in the country and members of TASC have been posing the question for years, see our response to Deadline 2.
As far back as Jan 2017 The Economist published an article on mains water at SZC, it makes for an interesting read, then as far back as 2010 TASC’s own Joan Girling was asking the very same question Where’s the water coming from?’
TASC (accessed) 17th Aug 2021
EDF launch yet another Consultation ~ Respond by 27th August
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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