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Representation by Greenpeace UK (Greenpeace UK )

Date submitted
29 September 2020
Submitted by
Non-statutory organisations
  • National policy statement EN-6 does not have effect for the purposes of determining applications for sites not deployed by 2025, including the extant application (see Written Ministerial Statement HLWS316 (2017)). Instead it is to be determined under s105 Planning Act 2008 having regard to a ‘wide variety of matters’. Significant weight can only be attached to the prescription of the NPS if there have been ‘no relevant change in circumstances’ (WMS HLWS316); * GP argues that there exists a catalogue of such changes in circumstances, including: o CLIMATE EMERGENCY - the clear failure of nuclear newbuild to contribute to climate change targets in existence at the time that the NPS was designated, targets which have now been superseded by more ambitious legislative targets in light of the Paris Agreement, and warnings from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Committee on Climate Change; o URGENT NEED - the complete failure and inability of new nuclear to address the 'urgent need' as required under the NPS; o COSTS - a failure to secure nuclear funding, including the total renege on the 'subsidy-free' nuclear regime promised, which has become synonymous with excessive cost, harm to the consumer, and an industry devoid of investors; o RENEWABLE ALTERNATIVES - the plummeting cost of renewables including a more than 80% reduction in solar costs, and wind power contracts continuing to be awarded at record-low contract prices. Government accepts that on cost and on the ‘abundance of alternative technologies, “nuclear is being out-competed”; and o WASTE - the growing stockpile of high-level radioactive waste without a storage solution.