A new report by Emeritus Professor of Energy Policy, Steve Thomas, says it is time to cancel Hinkley Point C. EDF and the French and UK governments may try to suggest that it’s too late to stop and will talk up the costs which have already been incurred. But the start of construction, when the first structural concrete is poured, is still between 2 and 4 years away. Preliminary works are conspicuous but relatively cheap. EDF Energy will have incurred expenses since signing the deal with the UK Government in October 2016 and some of these may be compensatable. But these costs would be dwarfed by the costs of going ahead.
No2 Nuclear Power 25th Sept 2017 read more »
Plans to dredge 300,000 tonnes of mud from near a disused nuclear plant and dump it off Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan’s coast have been criticised. A pollution consultant claims the mud from near Hinkley Point in Somerset could expose people to radioactivity. EDF Energy, the company behind the plans, said the work was not harmful to humans or the environment. The Welsh Government said all applications were considered in line with legal requirements. Dredging is proposed in Bridgewater Bay near the decommissioned Hinkley Point A and B as part of construction work for the new £19.6bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Welsh ministers granted permission in 2013 for developers to dispose of the sediment at a site know as Cardiff Grounds, previously used to deposit waste from Cardiff and Newport docks. But consultant Tim Deere-Jones, who specialises in marine radioactivity, claimed sampling of the mud to check for potentially harmful contaminates had been “inadequate”. He told BBC Wales low level waste from the nuclear plant had entered the site for more than 50 years and there was a lack of knowledge about the potential harm of moving the mud. “Rather than being relatively stable at the Hinkley site it is being churned up and brought over here to be dumped,” he said. “Radioactive and non-radioactive pollutants will inevitably enter inshore waters and coastal environments. “Several studies have shown that wastes dumped into the sea transfer to the land in sea spray and episodes of coastal flooding.
BBC 25th Sept 2017 read more »
