Plans for a new nuclear power station in Suffolk moved a step closer to becoming reality this week after the planning inspectorate accepted EDF’s application. This comes after eight years of public consultation, but it does not guarantee the project will go ahead as further public examination is needed.
This news comes after the fact that last week it was revealed by extensive planning documents that the proposed nuclear plant on the east coast will now cost £20bn, £6bn more than the original cost touted by the EDF and a figure which local nuclear campaigners described as ‘totally eye-watering’.
Those same campaigners are still hoping the power plant will not go ahead, Alison Downes from the Stop Sizewell C campaign argued in response to the news of the application’s approval ‘We maintain that Sizewell C does not fit the needs of the government or the country; building the wrong project in the wrong place is not the way to revive the UK’s economy. The benefits to Suffolk claimed by EDF are highly questionable and don’t consider the damage to our existing local economy including tourism when that industry needs all the help it can get’.
CND stands with the Stop Sizewell C campaigners and supports their efforts to bring a halt to these plans. CND general secretary, Kate Hudson has previously made clear that ‘Nuclear power is not the answer to the climate catastrophe we are hurtling into, or to our energy needs’.