Campaigners’ Court of Appeal hearing against Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station ruling
Campaigners have a Court of Appeal hearing on Wednesday 1 November 2023 to challenge the Government’s decision to allow the building of Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station.
Together Against Sizewell C Limited (TASC) had its judicial review appeal hearing granted because of the issue of a permanent water supply and because of public interest in the development.
In the High Court Mr Justice Holgate had dismissed TASC’s challenge of then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to give development consent to the 3.2 gigawatt power station. But Court of Appeal judge Lord Justice Coulson said the arguments around the solution for a permanent potable water supply in order to operate the power station, including the need for a desalination plant on the Suffolk Coast, should be looked at again.
TASC says it is clear that the Business Secretary needed to guarantee how a permanent water supply of two million litres per day for Sizewell C would be obtained, before giving consent. However, the environmental impact of such a plant was not included in the planning application for the nuclear power plant, and therefore was neither assessed nor taken into account by the Business Secretary.
TASC said the issue of a water supply should not have been treated as a separate issue to the power plant application which EDF claims will produce electricity for 60 years in the heart of Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty. However, even if it was permissible to treat them separately, the combined impact of both projects (namely the power station and the permanent water supply solution) needed to be assessed cumulatively.
On appeal, it is argued that Mr Justice Holgate was wrong to say that NNB Generation Company (SZC) Limited was “unable to identify a permanent supply of potable water” and that water supply connections were “simply unknown”. TASC says the company could at any time have decided to proceed with a desalination plant but, instead, chose to keep open the option of a supply provided by Northumbrian Water Ltd (NWL). If Sizewell C did rely on NWL for its potable water, the scale and location of the power station would necessitate additional infrastructure and the impacts of this, including harm to European Sites, have not been assessed, it is argued.
The Appeal Court hearing is due to be held in the Royal Courts of Justice, from 2pm.
