Natural Resources Wales has been accused of failing to insist on adequate testing of the sediment from the construction of Somerset’s Hinkley C nuclear power station. EDF Energy has applied to dispose of the sediment in the sea two miles from the South Wales coast. They applied for permission to dump the mud in February and began their sampling programme in August without an agreed sample plan between them and NRW. But the Welsh Government’s environmental watchdog has now backed those proposals. GeigerBay, the non-partisan coalition of scientists, experts, individuals and organisations opposing the dump had informed NRW that EDF’s sampling plan does not meet international requirements set by OSPAR (Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic), that there are too few samples in the cores collected by EDF and the testing does not use procedures to detect the nuclear fuel microparticles uranium and plutonium. The campaigners also believe the sampling is insufficient to meet the prerequisites of the Environment (Wales) Act, 2016 and the Well-being of Future Generations Act, 2015. The Environment (Wales) Act stipulates that wide consultation is always required in light of uncertainties.
Nation Cymru 19th Sept 2020 read more »