Fight to stop ‘nuclear mud’ being dumped off coast

PLANS to dump 300,000 tons of ‘nuclear mud’ in the sea off one of Britain’s biggest cities could pose a deadly threat to health, campaigners are warning.

EDF Energy began removing mud from the construction site of the Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset last month and disposing it off the coast of Cardiff.

But scientists say the material could be contaminated with plutonium and uranium in waste from the decommissioned Hinkley A and B reactors near the site and has not been properly tested for radioactivity.

Hundreds of thousands have signed online petitions calling for tests, while activists have vowed to blockade the dumping site with a ‘people’s flotilla’.

The campaigners – led by Cian Ciaran, keyboard player with Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals – withdrew a High Court challenge on Tuesday after the Welsh Assembly agreed to hold a debate on whether to suspend the dumping.

Keith Barnham, emeritus professor at Imperial College London, said the mud needs to undergo two more types of testing to be sure that it is safe.

Neil McEvoy, an independent member of the Welsh Assembly, said: ‘ Nuclear scientists have said particles of weapons-grade plutonium could be in the mud.

‘If you are unlucky enough to be exposed to these particles you are going to get cancer in 15 to 20 years. All we are asking is for EDF to test the mud.’

EDF Energy maintains the mud was fully tested by independent experts and is ‘no different to mud found anywhere else’.