UK government plunges into EPR nuclear quagmire
The UK has chosen to throw itself into the French nuclear quagmire masterminded by EDF. The UK government has given planning permission to EDF to build two boondoggle EPR reactors in Somerset. The Hinkley site has been given planning permission when no long-term solution exists for the radioactive waste these new nuclear reactors will generate - which contradicts the UK position on new reactor build. Beyond Nuclear's Linda and Paul Gunter will be in Somerset with the Stop Hinkley coalition at the beginning of April for strategy meetings and public presentations. We will also be in Suffolk where two more EPRs are in the pipeline for the Sizewell nuclear site.
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Stop Hinkley campaigners decry the scandalous decision:
Local campaigners say that today's decision to grant planning permission for EDF's Hinkley C project is no surprise, but does nothing to answer the serious questions which now hang over the project.
"I don't think anyone in West Somerset believed that the public consultation last year was anything more than an elaborate, undemocratic sham, and that in itself is a political scandal." said Theo Simon of the Stop Hinkley campaign. "Today's decision is a rubber-stamping exercise, but it doesn't change the facts on the ground. EDF don't know what they will do with the radioactive waste Hinkley C would produce, they don't have the investment they need now that Centrica have pulled out and they have threatened to walk away unless the government underwrite their costs and fix the nuclear electricity price artificially high for consumers."
"No other business in this country would get planning permission without a waste management plan and this industry produces the most hazardous waste known to humankind. David Cameron promised there would be no new nuclear without a solution to the waste issue, but today Ed Davey has granted EDF permission regardless. Cameron also promised there would be no public subsidy, but now his government is negotiating precisely that and apparently willing to lock us all into paying double the original price quoted for nuclear, for the next 35 years!"
"If the billions the government are prepared to commit to keeping EDF in profit were spent on creating jobs in renewables, energy efficiency and home insulation, we could cut our energy bills AND create thousands of sustainable jobs. Off-shore wind is now set to deliver power cheaper than nuclear by 2020, when the government say we will have the "energy gap" that justifies new nuclear. But with the best will in the world, Hinkley C could not now start generating till the mid 20s. EDF's other new reactors in Europe are now many years over schedule and many billions over budget."
"It's becoming apparent to everyone but the government that the nuclear emperor has no clothes. It makes no sense financially, environmentally or in terms of our energy needs. It's time to put it out of it's misery and save the government any further embarrassment. We need clean, green 21st century solutions to 21st century problems, not a toxic white elephant only kept alive by government bailouts and inflated electricity bills."
