Chinese nuclear developer taking a gamble on premature proposal for Bradwell B. The Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) has learned that GNSL, the Chinese-led company seeking to build a mammoth new nuclear power station at Bradwell, is preparing to launch its pre-application public consultation for planning permission later this year. This will be long … [Continue Reading]
BANNG continues to… keep BANNGing on!
Varrie Blowers looks forward to what 2020 may hold for new nuclear and reviews BANNG’s activities through 2019 column in the February 2020 edition of Regional Life. It may appear that all has been quiet on the eastern front in the recent past but Chinese developer, CGN, seems intent on carrying out its plans to … [Continue Reading]
Get Climate Done…
As we enter a new year, Andy Blowers muses on the massive challenge of climate change that lies ahead, globally and locally, in the column for Regional Life, January 2020. While there is some relief that the General Election is over, it does not feel like ‘glad confident morning again!’ (Robert Browning). On the environment … [Continue Reading]
Climate Change and Bradwell B – time to nip it in the bud?
Andy Blowers ponders a major local environmental issue in the BANNG column for Regional Life, December, 2019 As I write this, and for the first time in my recollection, environmental issues have claimed consistent public and political attention during a General Election campaign. Pretty well everyone now recognises that climate change is the most palpable … [Continue Reading]
Anything goes – as long as it’s nuclear power?!
In the BANNG column for Regional Life in November 2019 Andy Blowers considers it wrong that consumers and taxpayers should be made to subsidise foreign companies to provide nuclear power Renewables now provide over a third of electricity consumed in the UK and their costs continue to fall. The latest contracts for offshore wind are … [Continue Reading]
The Show Must (NOT) Go On!
Andy Blowers ponders the question, ‘Why, since Bradwell B is such a futile project, don’t the regulators stop it now?’ in the BANNG column for Regional Life, October, 2019 Why is it that so often decision makers fail to see or, perversely, choose to ignore the blindingly obvious? This thought occurred to me during a … [Continue Reading]
Nuclear power station a marine life killer?
Barry Turner, Vice-Chair of BANNG, argues that Bradwell B could have devastating impacts on fish and the marine environment of the Blackwater Estuary in the BANNG column for Regional Life September 2019. ‘It has been described as a giant plughole under the sea, sucking in 130,000 litres of water a second along with vast numbers … [Continue Reading]
What on earth is the ‘Bradwell B Community’?
Community against Fuel Element Debris dissolution – Tollesbury May 2014 Varrie Blowers, Secretary of BANNG, considers what is meant by ‘community’ as used in the Bradwell B Community Newsletter. The latest edition of the Bradwell B Community Newsletter landed on doormats in June. This newsletter from CGN (the Chinese state-owned company hoping to build a … [Continue Reading]
The Return of the Great Tide
Flooding at Mersea Island the morning after the Great Tide. (Photograph courtesy of Brian Jay) Andy Blowers asks what might happen at Bradwell if the East coast floods again as in 1953 in the BANNG Column for Regional Life July 2019. ‘It was now that wind and sea in concert leaped forward to their triumph’ … [Continue Reading]
Chernobyl – it could not happen here – could it?
In his column in the Regional Life magazine for June Andrew Blowers asks what might happen if a major nuclear accident happened at Bradwell? The ultimate disaster It is now a third of a century since the world’s greatest nuclear disaster occurred at around midnight on April 26, 1986. Chernobyl is both the symbol and … [Continue Reading]