This is copied from a Press Release from Woodbridge Town Council. The link to the original is here
“Woodbridge Town Council has resolved to oppose the building of Sizewell C.
The Woodbridge Town Mayor, Councillor Eamonn O’Nolan, said
‘for all the good intentions that may lie behind it, Sizewell C is a dangerously reckless project that must be stopped. The fine engineering minds employed on it should be giving their attention to the question of how to make safe the reactor that is already there, not building a new and bigger one alongside it.In terms of environmental impact, nothing discussed so far in the consultation process comes close to the reality of a Fukushima scenario. Yet that is what we could be facing -the prospect of our region becoming globally known in the same terms as Fukushima or Chernobyl: Effectively uninhabitable.The technology may have improved slightly, but the fundamental fact remains that uncontrolled water and nuclear reactors do not mix safely.EDF’s planners speak of Sizewell as standing on “a stable part of the Suffolk coast”. This is simply not true. Sizewell stands roughly halfway between Dunwich, where a medieval city now lies under the sea, and Slaughden, a village that was swept away in a storm barely a century ago. Its familiar white dome is within sight, or a short walk, of both. The people of Suffolk know how “stable” this coastline really is.’
Councillor O’Nolan went on to say,
‘there are many unanswered questions:
- We know too that sea levels are going to rise -but how far and how fast?
- We know climate change is already affecting storm activity -but how great will the change be?How much will even a small rise in sea level affect the ability of the offshore shallows to absorb storm energy?
- Is any existing or planned protection of the Sizewell site enough to defend it adequately against these certain changes?
EDF don’t have accurate or reliable answers to these questions -because nobody does. No doubt their engineers are confident. No doubt the engineers who designed Fukushima were confident too. Are our engineers that much cleverer and foresighted than their Japanese counterparts? If you think they might be, would you stake your life on it -and the lives of your children?It’s not even as if we need the promised power. The argument that renewable energy is unreliable is simply out of date. Solar, wind and potentially tidal sources provide ample power -and the question of availability on demand is answered by developments in thermal energy storage.’At less than 20 miles distance, Woodbridge is potentially within a future Sizewell disaster exclusion zone, and we believe there is no justification for putting the inhabitants of the town and the whole of the Suffolk coastal area at such high risk”
Ends
The vote was unanimous.
Thank you to TASC members who spoke to council members and gave them an alternative view to the one EDF is peddling
