Energy company EDF has confirmed it has started to dump mud from the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in the Severn Estuary off Cardiff.
The news came on the same day that rock musician and anti-nuclear campaigner Cian Ciaran lodged papers at the High Court seeking an injunction to stop the dumping.
The papers name NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd as the respondent in the action. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French energy company EDF, which obtained a licence to carry out the dumping.
More than 100,000 people have signed petitions against the dumping plans , which campaigners say could pose health risks.
EDF says the dredging of mud from the seabed off the Hinkley Point C site is necessary ahead of drilling six vertical shafts for the cooling water system for the new nuclear power station.
Both EDF and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which granted the licence, insist the dumping is safe, but campaigners argue that the licence should not have been granted because NRW failed to carry out an environmental impact assessment. They also say more tests for radioactivity should have been carried out.
Cian Ciaran, the keyboard player for Super Furry Animals, said: “I moved to Cardiff 25 years ago and now live in South Docks and raise my two children here. Cardiff is my home, Wales is my family and once again we’re under threat. I can’t just sit back and watch this unfold unchallenged.
“I have one simple argument – absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, therefore the precautionary principle should dictate a rethink. I’m tired of the excuses and lack of accountability – we should all call for a better future. The nuclear establishment cannot be trusted.”
Most Read
Independent AM Neil McEvoy said: “The Welsh public couldn’t be any more clear on not wanting this mud. Thousands have signed petitions. They’ve forced a debate in the Assembly. They’ve protested and donated thousands of pounds to a legal fund. But the Welsh Government and NRW just won’t listen. I hope the courts will be decisive in keeping this nuclear mud out of Wales. It is shocking that the dumping has begun. We asked the judge at Cardiff High Court for an immediate injunction but we were only offered a hearing next Monday.”
Max Wallis, of Friends of the Earth Barry & Penarth said: “As NRW has refused to suspend the licence due to the critical errors in their assessment, the campaign against Hinkley mud dumping had no option but to seek an interim injunction from court to stop the breach in law as well as irreversible harm to people and our Severnside environment.”
An EDF Energy spokesman confirmed that the dumping of 300,000 tonnes of mud from Hinkley Point off Cardiff started yesterday.
The company, which has not yet been served with papers by the High Court and plans to resist the application if and when there is a hearing, takes the view that it is lawful to carry out the dumping.
The spokesman said: “The mud is typical of sediment found anywhere in the Bristol Channel and no different to sediment already at the Cardiff Grounds site. NRW has confirmed that new, independent analysis of sediment samples taken in 2017 carried out by CEFAS has again shown that the sediment is not classed as radioactive under UK law. It poses no threat to human health or the environment.
“The original testing and radiological impacts were assessed using internationally accepted best practice and the original findings have been confirmed by the latest analysis.”