On Saturday, 21 July, a large van drew up outside the former Bradwell nuclear power station. Bradwell was the first stop in the East Anglian leg of CND’s Symbol Tour of Britain to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. The van was unloaded and its crew, led by David Polden, erected a large CND symbol in protest against nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
They were joined in the protest by groups from around the Blackwater estuary, united in their opposition to the proposal for a large new nuclear power station to be constructed alongside the former power station, itself now a long-term nuclear waste storage site. Among the protesters were the Green Party, those concerned about Fukushima and the dangers of nuclear accidents, as well as local protest groups like BANNG.
The protest was intended to draw attention to the problems of building a mammoth new nuclear power station on floodable ground, in an area of important but fragile ecology and wildlife. The harm from the proposed Bradwell B to the marine environment was stressed. Above all, the continuing harm to present and future generations of leaving highly radioactive spent fuel and other toxic wastes for the next 150 years on a site that is likely to be overwhelmed by coastal processes, storm surges and rising sea levels.
As Varrie Blowers, Secretary of BANNG, commented. ‘Of all the many reasons why we should stop building new nuclear power stations, the most fundamental is the passing of risk, cost and effort down the generations. They won’t need the nuclear power but they will be left to clear up the mess – if they can.’