Please take a moment to read this letter from Varrie Blowers and use the provided template to guide your response:
SUBJECT: Planning Application No. 17/01128
CGN/EDF Bradwell B Planning Application for Preliminary Investigative Works No. 17/01128
Application to carry out preliminary ground investigations and associated works in connection with a potential new Nuclear Power Station at Bradwell-on-Sea, use existing building as core storage area and form site compound with associated parking area.
I wish to oppose the granting of approval to this Planning Application on the grounds given below.
I recognise that this Application is for the start of ‘preliminary intrusive ground investigations’, which are themselves obviously recognised to be problematic, but these are to be undertaken to pave the way for development of a new nuclear power station. However, no indication is given about the scale, size and layout of such a station. No information is provided on how the reactors would be cooled. Surely before giving its approval, the Council needs to know what these intrusive ground investigations will lead to? This Application is, therefore, premature and incomplete.
I am disappointed that Maldon District and Essex County Councils have made clear their strong support for the principle of developing a new nuclear power station at Bradwell, believing that any negative impacts can be mitigated. Several are indicated in the Application and accompanying statements give detail: flooding; ecological disturbance; amenity damage; and archaeological destruction.
The Bradwell site is low-lying and vulnerable to sea-level rise, storm surges and other coastal processes that will result from climate change. The Flood Risk Assessment accompanying this Application itself makes clear that even at the present time if there were to be a breach in the sea defences, flooding of 3 metres at high tide could take place. It is reckless and irresponsible to propose building potentially dangerous infrastructure on what is a floodplain.
I am concerned that long-term storage of the highly radioactive spent fuel produced by the proposed new station will also be required, on this totally unsuitable site, until the middle of the next century. Apart from this constituting a potential danger, the hosting of this would burden generations of future taxpayers.
The Bradwell site and the Blackwater estuary have many nationally- and internationally-designated areas: RAMSAR; Special Protection Areas; SSIs. Further, the Blackwater estuary, along with the estuaries of the Colne and Crouch, was among the very first to be designated a Marine Conservation Zone.
It is inevitable that there will be damage to the marine environment from the operations of a new nuclear power station.
I do not believe that it will be possible to mitigate the negative impacts of a new nuclear power station and this Application should, therefore, be refused.
Potential damage to human health is also a serious problem. Many communities live close to or directly opposite and downwind of the proposed Bradwell B and yet it seems that these and their legitimate concerns are being totally ignored by Maldon District and Essex County Councils. [If you live on Mersea Island or in any other affected communities, you could vent your feelings here.]
The fishing and leisure industries of the Blackwater estuary, on which many people rely for their livelihoods, would be severely affected by a new nuclear power station.
The Blackwater estuary has a slow refresh rate of 10 days. This was a matter of deep public concern during what turned out to be the problematic and expensive Fuel Element Debris dissolution experiment at Bradwell A, which necessitated the emitting of radioactivity and heavy metals into the Blackwater. Another concern was the frequent emissions of Tritium to the atmosphere.
I believe that any new station would be out-of-date before its operations even start – operations that will stretch into the far future. It is, therefore, unnecessary to put human health and the environment into potential danger. The ongoing and fast development of renewables and battery storage negates the need for expensive nuclear energy.
The north coast of the Dengie and the estuary would be turned into a major industrial site both during the construction and operation of a new station. The Blackwater area would be changed forever. The reactor buildings, huge transmission lines, large waste stores and perhaps cooling towers would destroy the amenity of the area.
I, therefore, urge Maldon District Council to refuse this Application: it is premature and incomplete and could pave the way for an unnecessary nuclear power station and the long-term storage of spent fuel on a totally unsuitable, floodable site and would pose potential dangers to both human health and the ecology of the Blackwater estuary area for generations to come.