As expected, list of sites announced yesterday for possible deployment by 2025 includes Hartlepool. Public consultation lasts just 1 month, and there is bound to be widespread doubt that any level of public response will change any decisions. And, the new national planning regime which will take decision making away from local communities and hand it over to the Infrastructure Planning Commission(IPC).
Following the assessment period, sites that are "found to be suitable for the development of new nuclear power stations" will be listed in a draft Nuclear National Policy statement.
Iris Ryder, Green Party Mayoral candidate for Hartlepool and Eurocandidate said:
"The Green Party and has long campaigned against nuclear power due to its high cost and the unsolved problems with radioactive waste and risks of radioactive discharges. There also remains a small, but real risk of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack, which could cause huge loss of life and result in large areas of the North East becoming uninhabitable."
The existing Hartlepool nuclear power station has only recently come back on line after a series of failures and ‘incidents'. Another Government decision last summer has already decided that Hartlepool should be the recipient of nuclear waste from the North West, with a new incinerator being built on site.
In addition, coastal nuclear sites are more vulnerable to flooding as sea-levels rise faster than IPCC predictions and the Tees Estuary is recognised as the most vulnerable coastline in the region.
Shirley Ford, the Green Party lead Eurocandidate for the North East added:
"We are also dismayed that concentration on nuclear power by the Labour Government will take available investment and infrastructure away from renewables. A new generation of nuclear power stations would use valuable coastal high-capacity connectors to the grid, connectors which would otherwise be used for offshore wind, wave and tidal, making it more likely that the UK will miss legal commitments on renewables for 2020.
"And, we are dismayed that the huge opportunity for jobs in renewables in the North East will be squandered, if the money goes to nuclear instead and the party will be writing to object to the proposed sites and encouraging many others to do the same. Offshore wind energy in particular has been identified by One NorthEast has having huge potential for creating jobs in the region."
The full list of nominated sites is:
1. Bradwell, Essex, NDA
2. Braystones, Cumbria, RWE Npower
3. Dungeness, Kent, EDF Energy
4. Hartlepool, EDF Energy
5. Heysham, Lancashire, EDF Energy
6. Hinkley Point, Somerset, EDF Energy
7. Kirksanton, Cumbria, RWE Npower
8. Oldbury, Gloucestershire, the NDA and Eon
9. Sellafield, Cumbria, NDA
10. Sizewell, Suffolk, EDF Energy
11. Wylfa, North Wales, RWE Npower and the NDA
Full details on the DECC website
The detailed list of sites can be found here
And details on how to respond (by 14th May) are here
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