Kick Nuclear January 2024 Newsletter

Posted: 29th January 2024

KICK NUCLEAR
January 2024
The monthly newsletter of theKick Nucleargroup.
Editor: David Polden, Mordechai Vanunu House, 162 Holloway Road N7 8DQ;[email protected]
We hold”Remember Fukushima – End Nuclear Power” vigilsin London on the last Friday of each month – from 11am to 12.30pm outside the Japanese Embassy at 101-104 Piccadilly W1; followed by 1-2pm outside the 0fices of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, owners of the Fukushima nuclear power station, 14-18 Holborn WC2. Join us!
Copy date for January edition, January 15th.


TASC APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT
As reported in the November edition of this newsletter, the Appeal Court, in early November, heard an appeal byTogether Against Sizewell C(TASC) against a decision by the High Court. This had been to reject TASC’s challenge to the development consent given by the government for the construction of the planned Sizewell C nuclear power station. In a delayed judgement the Appeal Court upheld the High Court’s ruling.
Nothing daunted, on 22ndof January TASC joined with supporters ofStop Sizewell CandSuffolk Coastal Friends of the Earthto issue a statement announcing their legal team had agreed to take their case to the Supreme Court.
The announcement read:“With Ministers green-lighting deeply- flawed Sizewell C, despite no identified operational water supply, no acceptable design of sea defences necessary to keep the site safe for 100-plus years, ignoring warnings of climate change-related extreme weather events and the need to build resilient and sustainable infrastructure, we are delighted our legal team are taking the Sizewell C fight to the Supreme Court. It is the government’s decision to drive a bulldozer through East Suffolk by triggering Sizewell C’s construction when it has no nuclear site licence, no Final Investment Decision or transparency about how much the project will cost or who might pay for it, that has forced us to take our case to the highest court in the land.”
The statement included an appeal for funds to help cover the estimated £8,000 cost of launching the appeal to the Supreme Court. To make a donation, go to the TASC website click on “get involved” and then click on “donate”.

HINKLEY POINT C: YET FURTHER DELAYS AND INCREASING COSTS
Sky Newsreported on January 23rd2024 that Electricité de France (EDF) was admitting that the completion of Hinkley Point C will take between two and four extra years than the previous prediction, taking us up to 2029-2031, and that the predicted overall costs of construction had risen to £46 bn.
Still, at least building Hinkley C is helping employment with the 11,000 workers working on the project as well as 3,500 companies. And in December 2023 EDF claimed the year had ended on a high with the completion of one reactor building with a 14-metre tall dome having been hoisted on top
EDF’s managing director defended the delays in a note to staff, writing:”Like other infrastructure projects, we have found civil construction slower than we hoped and faced inflation, labour and material shortages – on top of COVID and Brexit disruption.”
This is another serious blow to the government’s plans for the expansion of nuclear power in Britain with the building of eight new civil nuclear reactors.
After all, the two-reactor Hinkley C nuclear power station is the only new reactor to be in construction since Sizewell B came into operation in 1997. Moreover EDF originally claimed in 2012 that Hinkley C would take five years to build, and be operating in time for us to use electricity from the plant to heat our Christmas dinners in 2017. However actual building didn’t start building till March 2017 with a predicted cost of £18 bn.

GMB UNION CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION FOR SAFETY AT SELLAFIELD
In the December edition of this newsletter I reported on the dire results of a year-long investigation The Guardian had carried out into safety risks at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.
The investigation uncovered over 100 regulatory problems that were of serious concern. Most worryingly it reported at least one major and increasing leak of radioactivity for over a year from old silos storing radioactive waste, without the source having been traced, with
the likelihood of the leak making groundwater radioactive. Also cracks had been discovered in a huge cooling pond containing highly-radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods which had beendisintegrating, housed in a crumbling building.
Other serious concerns were fire safety deficiencies, such as lack of functioning alarms in parts of the site containing radioactive material, increasing numbers of radiation protection incidentsand cybersecurity failings, with the hacking of Sellafield by groups linked to Russia and Chinaandlack of suitably qualified staff trained in nuclear safety.This hadled to work-stoppages,

In the face of all this the General, Municipal and Boilermakers Union(GMB) called on the government and nuclear authorities to take “urgent action” to address concerns over safety at Sellafield.They also wroteto the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield’s chief executive to demand greater investment in keeping the 11,000 employees at the site in Cumbria safe.