Representation by Professor Mike Cowling
- Date submitted
- 29 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
In my opinion EDF has failed to make the case for the Sizewell C (SC) across a broad front, in particular, in connection with the following issues: 1. Location • The Suffolk coastline is extraordinarily vulnerable and unstable. Much has been known for a long time but recent studies, unconnected with SC, have enhanced understanding and emphasised the coast’s fragility; its vulnerability to the inevitable consequences of changing climate and sensitivity to physical changes from local interventions. • The environs around SC are exceedingly valuable from an ecosystem goods and services perspective (including the well-being of the human population – residents or visitors). This is not addressed by EDF. The sensitivity of these goods and services to a mammoth development project, spread over a long time scale, has been ignored. No relevant modelling or analyses have been undertaken. 2. Environment • Many issues connected with the environment have not been adequately addressed – too many to list here but the overall long term industrialisation of a wide area and the plethora of consequences arising have not been quantified. It is claimed that this damage is a worthwhile cost for the legacy of building SC. One only has to look at the modern-day town of Sizewell and its locality to see that, after two previous nuclear developments, there is no favourable legacy – very much the opposite, a very real blight on the area. • There are very precious environmental assets within or adjacent to the development area. There are some attempts to minimise and quantify the effects on these assets but the attempts lack realism and underplay the vast impacts that would occur. 3. Transport • Many transport scenarios for SC have been examined and discussed, in many fora, during the years of consultation. Despite many promises and assurances, various facets of the EDF transport strategy have ignored the needs of not just those who live and work in the local area but also those across a large proportion of Suffolk, and a wider area within East Anglia. The projections for the transport load on this area are overwhelming in their size and, as currently being seen at Hinckley, the consequences are vast, well beyond anything admitted. 4. Jobs • Much has been made of the economic impact of the development in Suffolk and the prospect for new skilled local jobs. However, most of the skilled jobs will be imported temporarily from the Hinckley workforce with its supply chain. What will be available locally are significant numbers of short-term low-skilled jobs leaving little legacy. As evidence, the town of Sizewell is not a hot spot of highly skilled jobs and economic strength after two previous nuclear developments. Thus the much-lauded long-term economic benefits to Suffolk are illusory. 5. Need for SC Electricity • The time for SC has passed. Much has happened with alternative generation technologies, their costs, and their ability to deliver low-carbon base load. Future development of alternative low carbon, low cost technologies will leave SC as an expensive stranded asset.