Sizewell C, Legal Challenge

C nuclear power station the go-ahead amid warnings that UK nuclear plants will
be on the frontline of climate breakdown. Citing the threat to water supplies
in an area officially designated as seriously water stressed, the threats to
coastal areas from climate change and environmental damage, the challenge is
the first step in a judicial review of the planning consent. The business secretary,
Kwasi Kwarteng, overruled the independent Planning Inspectorate to grant
permission for the new nuclear reactor in Suffolk in July. Kwarteng is pushing
ahead with government plans to approve one new nuclear reactor a year as part
of an energy strategy that aims to bolster the UK’s nuclear capacity, with the
hope that by 2050 up to 25% of projected energy demand will come from it. But
Sizewell C has faced stiff opposition from local campaigners, and environmental
groups both for its cost and the environmental impact. In a letter to Kwarteng
outlining their legal challenge Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) argues that
the permission by the government for the plant was given unlawfully.
Represented by Leigh Day solicitors and supported by Friends of the Earth, the
group says there was a failure to assess the implications of the project as a
whole, by ignoring the issue of whether a permanent water supply could be
secured, a failure to assess the environmental impact of that project and the
suggestion that the site would be clear of nuclear material by 2140, which was
not upheld by evidence showing highly radioactive waste would have to be stored
on site until a much later date. The Planning Inspectorate had rejected the
scheme saying “unless the outstanding water supply strategy can be resolved and
sufficient information provided to enable the secretary of state to carry out
his obligations under the Habitats Regulations, the case for an order granting
development consent for the application is not made out”. Pete Wilkinson, chair
of TASC, said: “The case against Sizewell C is overwhelming, as has been
carefully documented throughout the inquiry stage and was found by the planning
inspector to have merit. “Even to consider building a £20bn-plus nuclear power
plant without first securing a water supply is a measure of the fixation this
government has for nuclear power and its panic in making progress towards an
energy policy which is as unachievable as it is inappropriate for the
21st-century challenges we face.”

Guardian 8th
Aug 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/08/sizewell-c-nuclear-plant-approval-faces-legal-challenge