Judicial review about Sizewell C granted
Posted: 11th August 2025
Good news – TACS’s new JR claim calling for Sizewell C’s development consent order to be revoked or varied has been granted a permission hearing in the High Court. At a date to be confirmed, a judge will hear why we consider it is unlawful to delay, for decades, assessment and public scrutiny of two huge additional flood defences kept secret by EDF since 2015. If the court grants permission, then we shall have a full judicial review hearing in due course.
Now this government has made a final investment decision for Sizewell C, committing a minimum of £17bn, but potentially risking as much as £54.5 billion, of public funds to the project, it is imperative that its resilience to extreme climate change events is assessed now. If not, the opportunity to consider alternatives to the additional flood defences e.g. raising the platform height, will be lost.
We have already burdened future generations with the climate crisis – so called solutions such as Sizewell C should not be allowed to add to that burden. Sizewell C will produce 4,000 tonnes of radioactive spent fuel that will need to be kept safe on Suffolk’s eroding coastline till the late 2100s, it must not be permitted to place a further environmental and financial encumbrance on future generations by leaving them with the responsibility to assess and build these additional sea defences.
Sizewell C’s attempt to avoid scrutiny of these additional sea defences now, means the project is proceeding without its full environmental impact having been assessed, this being in contravention of the UK Habitat Regulations. Sizewell C clearly believe they can do as they see fit with our Heritage Coast, National Landscape and designated wildlife sites irrespective of the damage they will cause – this government, the largest shareholder in Sizewell C, must be challenged on this.
TASC urgently need help to reach our crowdfunding target in order to continue with this important legal action. We are extremely grateful to all who are able to contribute to and/or share our new Crowd Justice page - https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/sizewell-c-legal-challenge/ .
In other news
It is TASC’s view that Sizewell C is fast becoming Ed Miliband’s HS2 with ever escalating costs. A betrayal of future generations, as funds would be better spent on cleaner, cheaper, quicker to deploy alternatives to help with the climate crisis.
The Daily Express reported, that the Financial Time was aware of Sizewell C documentation that exposed, ”…modelling prepared as part of the fundraising process reportedly gives a range of some £80bn to £100bn in nominal terms over the construction phase. The scheme’s cost would be £65bn to £80bn in real terms, subject to inflation…modelling shows revenue from a surcharge on consumer bills to help pay for the power plant is expected to be between £30bn to £50bn”.
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Flamanville 3: New reports, including this one from Energy News on 4th August, highlight the fiasco that is Flamanville 3, the same EPR reactor design as Sizewell C. Flamanville is £billions overbudget, 12 years late, started up in December 2024 but has only achieved 60% of maximum output to date, now offline until 1st October & due to be offline again for many months in 2026 to repair the faulty reactor pressure vessel! TASC question why this government has chosen to ignore all the warnings about EDF’s flawed EPR reactor design and splurged £billions of public funds on Sizewell C.
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Over the last year TASC wrote to the National Audit Office (NAO) three times calling for them to review the decision making that led to billions of public funds being speculatively risked on Sizewell C ahead of a FID but they refused on each occasion. Rather belated in TASC’s opinion, yet better late than never, the NAO have now announced they will be scrutinising the Sizewell C FID but will not be reporting until late 2025/early 2026.