NUCLEAR POWER STATION MUD DUMP CHALLENGE FAILS
STRIKING drone footage reveals the scale of the controversial dredging taking place as mud is moved from near the Hinkley Point nuclear sites to the Cardiff Grounds dumping area off the South Wales coast.
Campaigners have won international attention with their call for further tests to ensure the mud is safe and their push for an environmental impact assessment and the suspension of the marine licence.
But it is understood that the process of moving approximately 300,000 tonnes of sediment, which started in early September and is expected to last three months, is now “well over halfway through”.
The Welsh Government has now turned its guns on activists for spreading “scaremongering and lies”.
AMs voted against a cross-party motion calling on the Government to instruct Natural Resources Wales to suspend the marine licence, and Lesley Griffiths, Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs, said it was “deeply disappointing there are some who are deliberately seeking to mislead the public for their own political gains and misrepresenting the facts”.
The Wrexham Labour AM added: “While I respect the right to protest I am concerned by the ongoing scaremongering and lies being circulated as part of the campaign against this licence.”
The dredging was also defended by Cardiff Central Labour AM Jenny Rathbone who said it was “most distressing that some people who are anti-nuclear campaigners, as indeed am I, have whipped up concerns about something that isn’t present.”
Caerphilly Labour AM Hefin David was also concerned that a “dangerous precedent” would be set if AMs began “questioning the views of scientific experts”.
Neil McEvoy, a South Wales Central Independent AM who, together with Super Furry Animals musician Cian Ciarán, was part of the team that captured footage of the dredging vessel in the early hours of Monday morning, was dismayed by the vote against the suspension of the licence and the language used in the Senedd to describe campaigners.
He said: “The precedent is set now. People can call each other liars.
“I’m appalled at the lack of attention paid to the views of respected scientists.
“This is a failure of governance. How can we reach a point where [this is] happening with such little scrutiny?”
During the debate he claimed the “eyes of the world” were on Cardiff and said the “monumental incompetence and arrogance is staggering”.
The dredging is taking place so six vertical shafts can be drilled for the cooling water system for the new Hinkley Point C power station. Hinkley Point A produced electricity for 35 years; Hinkley Point B started operating in 1976.
EDF Energy, the company behind the construction of the two new reactors, did not disclose how much mud has been shifted but the marine licence allows for 304,885 tonnes to be deposited.