Representation by Dr Annette Abbott
- Date submitted
- 28 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The proposed Sizewell C Nuclear Power station will be severely environmentally damaging. It will cut in half the area of outstanding national beauty, destroy more than ten hectares of SSSI - rare habitat of international importance. The building work and proposed sea water cooling use by the power station will be extremely damaging to the marine environment in the North Sea killing up to fifty thousand fish a day with little realistic mitigation. Expected sea level rise over the next century has not been properly factored into the plans and is a major risk to any building on this coast. The building will be severely detrimental to the hydrology of the freshwater aquafer and catchment particularly the M22 Fenland habitat, destroying irreplaceable habitat for rare freshwater plants and insects sensitive to pH changes including Minsmere and Sizewell marshes which will severely adversely affect RSPB Minsmere which is one of the most internationally important wetland reserves for migrating birds in Europe and therefore the world. The anticipated carbon benefit of the proposed Sizewell C will not be realised before 2040 and the development of increasingly efficient renewable energy which is much cheaper than nuclear power (Hinkley £97.50/mwh (index linked) compared (for example) with offshore wind - £39/mwh and still getting cheaper. The twelve plus years of building and disruption will detrimental to the local wildlife – rare Red listed birds, barbastelle and other bats, rare endangered insects such as white admiral butterfly and Norfolk hawkers and incredibly rare plants - because of light and noise and dust pollution, new roads taking up more land, and concreting 1000 acres of woodland and heathland for the construction depot. New roads will carve up the area and it is well known that roads affect wildlife adversely either side up to 1 Km - which includes birds at RSPB Minsmere. The proposed 89 metre culvert over the Minsmere river will be very bad for birds, fish insects and otters. Badger sets will be destroyed. There is no sustainable cheap solution to nuclear waste. It is a safety concern and terrorism target and an encouragement to nuclear proliferation – nuclear power has a marginal role for energy provision in the future. It is a dying industry and will not create jobs for a sustainable future of this area. One hundred and twenty thousand people visit RSPB Minsmere every year - which will be massively reduced because of the building affecting the birds, and this and tourism to East Suffolk will be devastated by this proposed development - which will adversely affect the local economy, not offset by the increased temporary employment of workers during the building. EDF Energy is in serious debt and depends on money funded by British Taxpayers to continue in business in the future - the costing does not include the decommissioning or protecting from the long term of nuclear power. This is neither affordable nor safe for Britain and our environment. Having lived and worked in Suffolk for 36 years I do not believe the building of another nuclear power station at Sizewell will be anything other than a catastrophe for this county. Please stop this development.