Axe Hinkley C. There is nowhere to put the waste

Axe Hinkley C call after Cumbria decision

PRESS RELEASE,  31/1/13  Southwest campaigners are calling for the planned nuclear development at Hinkley Point to be axed,  following Cumbria County councils decision not to accept a future underground waste dump in the Lake District.  Anti-nuclear activists  say that without a long term destination for it’s radioactive waste,  EDF’s Hinkley C project can only mean a permanent nuclear dump staying in West Somerset - for many thousands of years.

The proposed “Geological Disposal Facility” (GDF) was intended to safely store all the UK’s radioactive waste – including Somersets – deep underground for the next 10 thousand years.  Yesterday (30/1/13) Cumbrian councillors decided by a vote of 7 to 3 to reject the governments search for a suitable site in their county.

Cumbria had already been considered – and rejected – for a similar project in the 1980s, but experts then pronounced the lakelands too geologically unstable for storing the immensely hazardous radioactive waste,  which is the end-product of nuclear power.   So far no other counties have volunteered to host the permanent deep waste store,  despite offers of cash incentives from the government.

“In order to claim that the future waste from new nuclear plants can be disposed of safely, the government and the nuclear lobby needed the Stage 4 exploratory work to go ahead in Cumbria,” said Theo Simon, a spokesperson for the local Stop Hinkley campaign.  “In fact,  David Cameron said in 2007 that investment in new nuclear would not be possible unless the nuclear waste issue had been dealt with.

“EDF’s planning application for Hinkley C has rested on geological storage for its toxic spent fuel rods being available later this century,  but Cumbria was the only county in Britain that would even consider hosting such a facility.  Now the fig-leaf of the Cumbrian promise has dropped away.  The emperor has no clothes – and the EDF has no GDF.”

[StopNuke] Axe Hinkley C call after Cumbria decision

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theo@seizetheday.org via lists.riseup.net	Jan 31 (2 days ago)
to jane

PRESS RELEASE,  31/1/13


Axe Hinkley C call after Cumbria decision



Southwest campaigners are calling for the planned nuclear development at Hinkley Point to be axed,  following Cumbria County councils decision not to accept a future underground waste dump in the Lake District.  Anti-nuclear activists  say that without a long term destination for it’s radioactive waste,  EDF’s Hinkley C project can only mean a permanent nuclear dump staying in West Somerset - for many thousands of years.

The proposed “Geological Disposal Facility” (GDF) was intended to safely store all the UK’s radioactive waste – including Somersets – deep underground for the next 10 thousand years.  Yesterday (30/1/13) Cumbrian councillors decided by a vote of 7 to 3 to reject the governments search for a suitable site in their county.

Cumbria had already been considered – and rejected – for a similar project in the 1980s, but experts then pronounced the lakelands too geologically unstable for storing the immensely hazardous radioactive waste,  which is the end-product of nuclear power.   So far no other counties have volunteered to host the permanent deep waste store,  despite offers of cash incentives from the government.

“In order to claim that the future waste from new nuclear plants can be disposed of safely, the government and the nuclear lobby needed the Stage 4 exploratory work to go ahead in Cumbria,” said Theo Simon, a spokesperson for the local Stop Hinkley campaign.  “In fact,  David Cameron said in 2007 that investment in new nuclear would not be possible unless the nuclear waste issue had been dealt with.

“EDF’s planning application for Hinkley C has rested on geological storage for its toxic spent fuel rods being available later this century,  but Cumbria was the only county in Britain that would even consider hosting such a facility.  Now the fig-leaf of the Cumbrian promise has dropped away.  The emperor has no clothes – and the EDF has no GDF.”

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[StopNuke] Axe Hinkley C call after Cumbria decision

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theo@seizetheday.org via lists.riseup.net	Jan 31 (2 days ago)
to jane

PRESS RELEASE,  31/1/13


Axe Hinkley C call after Cumbria decision



Southwest campaigners are calling for the planned nuclear development at Hinkley Point to be axed,  following Cumbria County councils decision not to accept a future underground waste dump in the Lake District.  Anti-nuclear activists  say that without a long term destination for it’s radioactive waste,  EDF’s Hinkley C project can only mean a permanent nuclear dump staying in West Somerset - for many thousands of years.

The proposed “Geological Disposal Facility” (GDF) was intended to safely store all the UK’s radioactive waste – including Somersets – deep underground for the next 10 thousand years.  Yesterday (30/1/13) Cumbrian councillors decided by a vote of 7 to 3 to reject the governments search for a suitable site in their county.

Cumbria had already been considered – and rejected – for a similar project in the 1980s, but experts then pronounced the lakelands too geologically unstable for storing the immensely hazardous radioactive waste,  which is the end-product of nuclear power.   So far no other counties have volunteered to host the permanent deep waste store,  despite offers of cash incentives from the government.

“In order to claim that the future waste from new nuclear plants can be disposed of safely, the government and the nuclear lobby needed the Stage 4 exploratory work to go ahead in Cumbria,” said Theo Simon, a spokesperson for the local Stop Hinkley campaign.  “In fact,  David Cameron said in 2007 that investment in new nuclear would not be possible unless the nuclear waste issue had been dealt with.

“EDF’s planning application for Hinkley C has rested on geological storage for its toxic spent fuel rods being available later this century,  but Cumbria was the only county in Britain that would even consider hosting such a facility.  Now the fig-leaf of the Cumbrian promise has dropped away.  The emperor has no clothes – and the EDF has no GDF.”

EDF allowed to clear Hinkley site

Anti-nuclear campaigners have slammed a council’s decision to allow EDF Energy to begin clearing land earmarked for a nuclear reactor. And they pledged to step-up their campaign of direct action against the energy giant.

Activists from the Stop New Nuclear network branded West Somerset Council’s decision yesterday to allow EDF to start bulldozing 400 acres next to Somerset’s Hinkley Point nuclear power station as a ‘circus and a travesty’. The planning committee’s decision paves the way for preparatory work to begin on the Hinkley C mega-reactor.

Local Bridgwater resident and activist, Nikki Clark, said campaigners are now gearing up for a mass blockade of Hinkey Point on October 3rd. ‘‘The planning committee was more concerned about the road layout that the social and environmental impact of such a huge power plant. Our only hope now is to physically stop the trashing of much-loved woodlands and pastures with our bodies.’

She added: ‘The travesty of the event was emphasized by the fact that permission for a wind farm on the same site was refused two years ago because of concerns about its environmental impacts. These will be dwarfed by the devastation planned by EDF.’

Campaigners maintain that ‘new nuclear’ power is dangerous and expensive. ‘After the Fukushima accident in Japan, the government should be pausing to consider the lessons rather than ploughing mindlessly ahead,’ said Stop Hinkley spokesman Crispin Aubrey. ‘Other countries are showing that a non-nuclear renewable future is feasible – we should be following their lead.’

The German government recently announced a complete phase-out of nuclear power within a decade. Its report, Germany’s Energy Turnaround – a collective effort for the future also rules out a increase in the use of fossil fuels.

‘The secret ingredient is an upscaling in the use of combined heat and power – a proven technology that will support a national energy efficiency programme,’ says Camilla Berens from Kick Nuclear. ‘The burning question is, if the German government can do, why can’t ours? We want a future, not a disaster.’

The Stop New Nuclear network objects to EDF's preparatory works because:

• There is no certainty that EDF will go ahead with building Hinkley C, partly for financial reasons. The company’s prototype power station at Flamanville in France is now four years behind schedule and its cost has almost doubled to £6 billion.

• If the French company does not gain approval for the power station from the Infrastructure Planning Commission, over 400 acres of beautiful countryside will have been needlessly trashed. EDF claims that it could be returned to its original state is a nonsense.

• The amount of time allegedly to be saved – about a year – is insignificant compared with the overall timescale of building nuclear plants of up to 10 years. This is simply an exercise in EDF “jumping the gun”.

• There is no energy gap which cannot be filled by other means, as nuclear supporters claim. Other non-nuclear power stations can be built faster and cheaper while we move towards a safer, cleaner future based on renewable sources.

• Any supposed economic benefits to the area from this work will be outweighed by the disruption it will cause. The Planning Officer's report accepts, for example, that the employment benefits are “likely to be relatively small… compared to the local impacts”.
More information on the Stop New Nuclear mass blockade can be found at:

http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk/

email: campaign@stopnewnuclear.org.uk

EDF wants to become a member of Somerset Wildlife Trust!

I can't for the life of me understand why some of you want to boycott clean, green and safe EDF Energy, which obviously loves wildlife in Somerset (and everywhere) - badgers, bats, wading birds, etc. OK, it may be true that clean, green and safe EDF Energy wants to build two new nuclear reactors in the vicinity of a RAMSAR site, plans to trash 430 acres of pristine natural coastal habitat well in advance of any application to build any new nuclear reactors on these greenfield sites, and to subject the countryside, wildlife and people for hundreds of miles around to the spectre of a future nuclear catastrophe; but at the end of the day, it is you nasty anti-nuclear people that are really going to kill the wildlife with your irrational opposition to clean, green, safe and too-cheap-to-meter nuclear energy.

I see that now you have even gone so far as to object to clean, green and safe EDF Energy becoming a platinum corporate member of Somerset Wildlife Trust.

"Petition to ask Somerset Wildlife Trust to remove the privilege of Corporate membership from EdF energy"

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no_to_edf_membership_of_somerset_wildlife_trust/

Are there no depths that you won't plunge to in your senseless, planet-destroying campaign to deprive this great country of clean, green and safe nuclear power, and so force the lights to go out?

Yours disgustedly,
Andrew Brown

A cry from the heart about the destruction caused by nuclear new build

" Dear Sirs

I will be as brief as I can be in telling a complex story that I hope you will consider worth pursuing on any one of the issues that arise from it.

I will not pretend that I am writing exclusively to you; rather, I am writing to all and sundry on behalf of the small hamlets of Shurton, Burton and Wick and by extension, every hamlet in the country in the hope that, as one neighbour put it, “we might find ourselves to be rather more than a few voices crying in the wilderness of injustice that EDF are currently proposing to create”.

This area of West Somerset is unassuming, virtually unknown and simply, magically beautiful apart from the two nuclear power stations that squat on the coast.  A third is proposed, not least because the population already lives with the first two.  The early stages of EdF’s proposals were not resisted, partly because people felt that they had no choice and that the new station would be like the first two.  It was thought that local benefits might accrue to the host parish and the county, but as the true extent of the development and the crushing, barely mitigated impact on the locality was revealed, the residents have turned from resignation and acceptance to horror and antipathy. 

Much of the blame for this can be laid at EdF’s door.  The consultation process has failed to give the detail an informed response requires and it has ignored local feedback (as all the official responses from Local Government confirm).  The company has resisted all efforts made by local people to engage with them at anything other than the most superficial level.  The company’s representatives do this with consummate charm and very sophisticated PR support but nobody is fooled that any real modification to the company’s original scheme is contemplated.

In effect, these three small hamlets on the southern boundary of the proposed development will be crushed.  Their way  of life will vanish over-night and for ten years or more they will be marooned in a noisy, dusty, polluted and spot-lit industrial wasteland, with little more than the qualified offer of double-glazing to off-set the damage, all for the sake of what the IPC may identify as “over-riding public interest”.

It is not just us.  The rest of the county will suffer as well to a lesser but still damaging degree.  Whitehall is watching.  We are the first in the country; what happens here will happen everywhere that new nuclear power stations are proposed.   If we - few in number, far from wealthy, and without spheres of influence - cannot make our voices heard, other communities will be compromised from the outset.

Now, before the main submission to the IPC has been submitted, let alone granted, EdF proposes to begin ‘preliminary works’.  It hopes to do this beginning in March 2011.  It seeks to uproot hedgerows and copses over 500 acres, fill in a valley, excavate and level the coastal hinterland, build a massive jetty next to a fossil beach, drive roads across fields and pile mountains of spoil around the hamlets, all before the design of the reactor is approved, let alone the development itself.  The company says that if it fails to get planning permission from the IPC and the Secretary of State, it will ‘restore’ what it has destroyed. We wonder how.

There are so many issues that we wish the national press would take up – political, economic, social and community, manipulation and management of public awareness, heritage and culture, the environment.   If the country is complacent about nuclear power, it should not be complacent about nor ignorant of the true cost. 

Please get in touch, if only to discover whether or not there is anything more in this that your paper could use to sell copies.  We will organize access to all the information and support you might want. EdF of course will fall over itself to tell you how wonderful it is.

Yours sincerely 

Lesley Flash 

Myrtle Farm, Shurton, Stogursey, Somerset TA5 1QE   01278 732417"

EDF “Jumping The Gun” with Hinkley Point destruction

 French energy company EDF is “jumping the gun” by applying to destroy over 400 acres of Somerset countryside – even before it has permission to build on the site – according to the local campaign group Stop Hinkley.

EDF has just submitted an application to West Somerset Council for what it describes as “preliminary works” in advance of constructing Britain’s largest nuclear power station. In fact this involves completely razing the site near Hinkley Point, filling in a beautiful valley and even starting excavation of the power station foundations.

All this would be done before a formal proposal to build the plant itself has been delivered to the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which could then reject it.

The company has already evicted all badgers from the site by blocking off their setts, an action approved prematurely by Natural England, the wildlife conservation body.

                                                                                                                  

“EDF have already shown that they have precious little regard for the countryside,” says Stop Hinkley spokesman Crispin Aubrey. “Now they are about to treat it with contempt by trashing over 400 acres of woodland, cornfields and coastline. This is jumping the gun on a massive scale.”

The “preliminary works” proposed by the multinational power company - on 430 acres of land stretching from the Severn Estuary to the village of Shurton – involve:

·         Removal of the majority of trees and hedges

·         Filling in a valley with excavated earth

·         Closure of existing footpaths and bridlepaths, including the coast path

·         Security fencing round the whole area

·         Stripping topsoil and vegetation to make a terraced area for the proposed nuclear reactors

·         New roads built across the site

·         Underground streams re-routed

·         The excavation of more than 3.2 million cubic metres of soil, sub-soil and rocks. This is more than was dug out to prepare the site for the 2012 London Olympic Games

·         Noise from up to 12,000 vehicle movements per month

·         Construction of new sea wall along the coast

·         Construction of a jetty out into the sea

The company says it will restore the site to its original state if it fails to gain permission for the Hinkley C power station. “This would be impossible,” says Crispin Aubrey. “You can’t recreate a landscape that has taken generations to mature.”

Stop Hinkley is urging all those opposed to EDF’s actions to register their objection with West Somerset Council, which is planning to conduct a consultation process.

EDF “Jumping The Gun” with Hinkley Point destruction

French energy company EDF is “jumping the gun” by applying to destroy over 400 acres of Somerset countryside – even before it has permission to build on the site – according to the local campaign group Stop Hinkley.

EDF has just submitted an application to West Somerset Council for what it describes as “preliminary works” in advance of constructing Britain’s largest nuclear power station. In fact this involves completely razing the site near Hinkley Point, filling in a beautiful valley and even starting excavation of the power station foundations.

All this would be done before a formal proposal to build the plant itself has been delivered to the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which could then reject it.

The company has already evicted all badgers from the site by blocking off their setts, an action approved prematurely by Natural England, the wildlife conservation body.

                                                                                                                  

“EDF have already shown that they have precious little regard for the countryside,” says Stop Hinkley spokesman Crispin Aubrey. “Now they are about to treat it with contempt by trashing over 400 acres of woodland, cornfields and coastline. This is jumping the gun on a massive scale.”

The “preliminary works” proposed by the multinational power company - on 430 acres of land stretching from the Severn Estuary to the village of Shurton – involve:

·         Removal of the majority of trees and hedges

·         Filling in a valley with excavated earth

·         Closure of existing footpaths and bridlepaths, including the coast path

·         Security fencing round the whole area

·         Stripping topsoil and vegetation to make a terraced area for the proposed nuclear reactors

·         New roads built across the site

·         Underground streams re-routed

·         The excavation of more than 3.2 million cubic metres of soil, sub-soil and rocks. This is more than was dug out to prepare the site for the 2012 London Olympic Games

·         Noise from up to 12,000 vehicle movements per month

·         Construction of new sea wall along the coast

·         Construction of a jetty out into the sea

The company says it will restore the site to its original state if it fails to gain permission for the Hinkley C power station. “This would be impossible,” says Crispin Aubrey. “You can’t recreate a landscape that has taken generations to mature.”

Stop Hinkley is urging all those opposed to EDF’s actions to register their objection with West Somerset Council, which is planning to conduct a consultation process.

EDF evicts Badgers before getting planning permission

French government subsidised Nuclear Corporation EDF evicts the badgers from their ancestral setts because they want to bulldoze the land where the badgers live. Do they have planning permission to do this? No they do not.


So how did they get permission to evict the unfortunate badgers?

Easy. They applied to a wildlife watchdog called Natural England for a licence. And natural England granted them the licence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, saying that one-way gates should be installed and artificial setts created.

Clearly Natural England could not care less about the destruction of a large piece of natural England, with ancient trees, hedges, birds and animals, including badgers.

Badger Power

Anti-nuclear campaigners blockade EDF's Hinkley Point nuclear power plant

Since 7am this morning, anti-nuclear campaigners from different anti-nuclear groups which are part of the Stop Nuclear Power Network [1] are blockading the access road to EDF's Hinkley Point nuclear power
station in protest against EDF's plans for nuclear new build and what they are calling a flawed consultation.

Dressed in badger costumes, and locked on across the only access road to Hinkley Point nuclear power station, the activists protest against a flawed EDF consultation for a new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, which ends today. "This EDF-led consultation is a con" says Mell, a teacher from Suffolk "While it is good to involve the local community, the main question - whether a new nuclear power station should be built or not - is not part of the consultation. What kind of democracy is this if the most important question - whether we want to expose ourselves and coming generations to nuclear danger and radioactive waste - is not part of the consultation?".

Even before EDF has secured planning permission for Hinkley Point C, the company wants to begin with 'enabling works', which has upset the local community. Nikki, a Bridgwater Mum said: "From this autumn on, EDF wants to dynamite and bulldoze 435 acre of green fields - habitats for badgers, bats, and other wildlife, and in close proximity to Bridgwater Bay, which is a sanctuary for thousands of waders, ducks, and other sea birds. It is a joke to think this land could be restored - as EDF claims - should Hinkley C not be built."[2]

"To resist EDF's plans for nuclear expansion, not only here at Hinkley Point, but also at Sizewell, Bradwell, Hartlepool, and Heysham, we call for a boycott of EDF [3]. EDF might try to greenwash itself, but however
hard they try, EDF still stands for nuclear power, and here in Hinkley Point also for Eagerly Destroying Fields. As consumers, we have the power to make our opinion known by boycotting EDF, but also by taking nonviolent direct action. If EDF wants to nuke the climate and the planet, the nonviolent resistance is not just an option, but a duty - at Sizewell, and here at Hinkley Point" [4], says Nicola Deane from Suffolk.

Notes for journalists

[1] The Stop Nuclear Power Network is a UK-based non-hierarchical grassroots network of groups and individuals taking action against nuclear power and its expansion and supporting sustainable alternatives. We
encourage and seek to facilitate nonviolent direct action, as well as more conventional forms of campaigning. For more information see
http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/
[2] See Stop Hinkley's press release from 13 August 2010: EdF to dynamite and bulldoze Hinkley 44 acre greenfield site,
http://stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr100813.htm
[3] For more information on the campaign to boycott EDF, see
http://boycottedf.org.uk/
[4] Some of the activists involved in today's blockade also blockaded Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk on 22 February 2010. See
http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-democracy-dumped-sizewell- nuclear.html
[5] Recently leaked documents of EDF show that the reactor technology chosen for Hinkley Point C is all but safe, and that a Chernobyl style catastrophe is possible. See Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire": EXCLUSIVE:
Confidential EDF documents show serious accident risks with the EPR reactor, 30 September 2010,
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/index.php?menu=english&sousmenu=presse&page=index#

Please write in to the current round of consultations on nuclear power.

The Nuclear National Policy Statement explains how nuclear fits with energy policy and defines how the new fast-track planning system will process nuclear power station applications. Friends of the Earth has said it may challenge the nps consultation but it is still very worthwhile submitting as many responses as we can muster.

There is a simultaneous consultation over the "Justification" of new practices involving radiation. Under new EU law, the Government must justify any health detriment from running new nuclear power stations. This consultation has hardly been trumpeted by DECC but is potentially more of a show-stopper than the nps.

Both consultations end on 22nd February. The Hinkley C planning application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission is then expected in August, subject to both consultations being endorsed by DECC. Subject also to a safety licence being granted in June next year by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, EdF hope to begin building 'proper' later next year. They have already started investigative drilling etc and are putting in local planning applications for preliminary work.

EdF local consultation meetings have shown people are very distressed at the likely traumatisation of local villages due to the immense infrastucture of building two massive reactors. Two or possibly three reactors are slated for Oldbury with applications expected in October.

To take part in the Government consultations go to:
_www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/home/_
(http://www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/home/)
where you can fill in a response form and also order hard copies (1,600 pages!) of the consultation documents. Or call 0870 600 5533. Ask for all documents related to the nuclear policy statement and ‘justification’. Or simply send in your response by email to:

_energynpsconsultation@opm.co.uk_ (mailto:energynpsconsultation@opm.co.uk)

On the stop Hinkley website you will find two letters addressed to Government departments. You can use them to respond to the consultations. Simply add your name and address and post to the address at the top of the letters. Alternately you can adapt them with your own words.
_http://www.stophinkley.org/EngRevu/Template%20Justification%20response.doc_

(http://www.stophinkley.org/EngRevu/Template%20Justification%20response.doc)
_http://www.stophinkley.org/Temporary/OPMJan2010Template.doc_
(http://www.stophinkley.org/Temporary/OPMJan2010Template.doc)

Jim Duffy
Stop Hinkley Coordinator

Anti Nuclear Campaigner goes to Copenhagen

Stop Hinkley campaigner Crispin Aubrey will be attending the Copenhagen climate conference and objecting to the use of nuclear power to try and solve climate change.

At midday on Monday he plans to help hand in a 50,000 strong petition against nuclear power put together by a coalition of European groups, 'Don't Nuke the Climate'(1).

Crispin, from Nether Stowey in West Somerset, was the Stop Hinkley Coordinator during the 1988-89 Hinkley C Public Inquiry and has recently returned to active campaigning for the group since plans were put forward for a twin reactor. As a wind energy journalist he campaigned in favour of the twelve turbine West Hinkley Wind Farm which has now been withdrawn by EdF who bought out the rights to the wind-farm when they bought 500 acres of land for their proposed EPR reactor.

The Sustainable Development Commission has said that replacing all existing nuclear generation will reduce UK carbon emissions by just four percent (2). Crispin says there are better, faster ways of solving the climate crisis:

"Nuclear power produces harmful greenhouse gases during construction, uranium mining, fuel production and decommissioning stages. We could have cleaner renewable energy, harnessing natural resources providing quicker cuts in carbon emissions if only governments would listen. Losing the wind-farm at Hinkley to a massive reactor with its dangerous nuclear waste to be stored locally for 160 years is a lost opportunity."

(1) Don't Nuke the Climate events at Copenhagen:

http://dont-nuke-the-climate.org/spip.php?article659&lang=en

(2) Reducing CO2 emissions - nuclear & the alternatives

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/Nuclear-paper2-reducingCO2emissions.pdf