8th May 2024
ONR LEGITIMISES THE SIZEWELL C WHITE ELEPHANT
Nuclear Site Licence issued to boost investor confidence despite enduring uncertainties about the project.
Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) are appalled that the Office of Nuclear Regulation has issued a nuclear site licence to Sizewell C Ltd for the construction and operation of Sizewell C (SZC), despite a raft of unresolved issues, not the least of which is the inability of the site to withstand the consequences of climate change over the 100+ years it will be required to remain an active nuclear site.
Pete Wilkinson, TASC’s Deputy Chairperson, said today, ‘The ONR is being used as a pawn in the multi-billion pound misadventure which is Sizewell C. Without a nuclear site licence, the project looks like the white elephant that it is and investors have quite rightly ignored appeals and publicly funded sweeteners of some £2.5bn from the government. The ONR’s agreement to issue the nuclear site licence gives the SZC elephant the appearance of a done deal and smacks of the desperation of the government to get SZC over the line despite investor disinterest. The ONR must have been under huge pressure to get this licence issued and it has bowed to the will of its policy-making masters and it has finally caved in.’
In a self-congratulatory statement today, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, Andrew Bowie, sought to reinforce the myth and justify the issuing of the licence which was surely undertaken in order to further reassure the markets that Sizewell C is an investable proposition. He said that Sizewell C will be ‘the cornerstone of the UK’s clean energy transition.’
TASC’s Deputy Chairperson reacted, saying, ‘Nuclear power is not clean and to continue to insist that it is, compounds the myth trotted out by government and condemns us to a massive increase in nuclear generated electricity which will have only a marginal effect on combatting the existential crisis which is climate change. It is nothing short of appalling that government continues to attribute nuclear power with generating clean electricity when a million cubic metres of legacy nuclear waste still awaits a sensible management programme and when radioactive waste is discharged to the air and sea with questionable health impacts.’
