780,000 TONNES of sediment from a nuclear plant are set to be dumped just one mile from Wales’ capital city according to campaigners fighting to stop the dumping.
The row over dredging mud from Hinkley Point nuclear power station into Welsh waters has come back into the spotlight as campaigners reached their 5,000 signature target for a petition calling for the mud to be tested last night.
Reaching the 5,000 target means the controversial topic will be up for a debate in the Welsh Parliament.
The petition, created by Cian Ciaran of the Super Furry Animals, demands ‘that a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is carried out before any further sediment from Hinkley Point nuclear power station can be dumped’.
Speaking this morning, WNP leader and anti-mud campaigner Neil McEvoy MS said,
“Wales is standing up for itself.
“How can we allow 780,000 tonnes of material dredged from outside a nuclear power station to be dumped in our waters without testing it properly? The Labour Government and Natural Resources Wales have a lot to answer for.
The public are concerned about this issue. Environmentalists are outraged. Eminent scientists are on record saying they are seriously concerned. The only people who don’t seem to be bothered about this are the Labour politicians sitting in Cardiff Bay.
“This is first and foremost about the safety of our people and of our marine environment. It is also about how Wales is treated as a nation. The Chinese long ago brought in a ban on ‘foreign garbage’ to stop other countries dumping their rubbish there. In Wales, our government seems to welcome such treatment. But the Welsh people have had enough.”
The row began in 2018, once it was revealed the Labour-led Government had approved plans for the dumping of 300,000 tonnes of sediment from outside the Hinkley Point nuclear station.
EDF Energy is set to deposit another 780,000 tonnes of sludge off the Welsh coast next year as part of building work for the new £22bn Hinkley Point C reactor.
Professor Keith Barnham of Imperial College London and Richard Bramhall of the Low Level Radiation Campaign set out their fears about any further dredging off the coast of Cardiff in May in a long discussion with Neil McEvoy MS here –
Link to petition: https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/200157
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