Representation by Edward Creswick
- Date submitted
- 29 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am a resident of Suffolk and a retired engineer with experience in managing major industrial projects (eg aluminium smelters). I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed Sizewell C project. The principle concerns I have are: • New nuclear projects take far too long to construct, have very high costs, and tend to have significant overruns on both counts. • EDF as principal contractor have an extremely poor record on design and construction of nuclear power stations. Will they remain financially viable for the duration of the project? • It is unclear to me what involvement China will have in the project. Given the current UK-China relationship it may be prudent to keep away from adding potential problems. • The cost of nuclear construction must be fully absorbed before any power is produced to generate income. These projects therefore carry a huge cost of money (interest) over many years in addition to the actual cost of construction. • In my view the proposed site does not appear to have sufficient elevation to protect it from rising sea levels, particularly surges in the lifetime of the project that are an increasing risk with climate change. As a consequence, the it carries long term catastrophic risks to the whole of East Anglia. The alternatives of renewable energy - wind, solar and soon tidal power - have numerous advantages over nuclear power: • Renewables can be brought on stream relatively quickly and incrementally. Construction programmes can be adjusted according to changing needs while underway. • Generating power in small separate distributed units protects against major system failures. It can also reduce the cost of transmission by locating power supply nearer areas of demand. • Renewables present little risk in the event of failure of individual units, are radiation free and carry no spent fuel problems. • During their construction and operating lifetime they emit less CO2 compared to nuclear. • When they reach end of life due to age or obsolescence, they can be safely dismantled at low cost. In short, putting the money required for Sizewell C into renewables instead is a no brainer. New nuclear power projects are now on the verge of being obsolete before they start. If Sizewell C goes ahead, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s EDF’s last nuclear project.