Latest news with #StopSizewellC
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour's nuclear dream has destroyed my home: inside the Sizewell C planning row
Eastbridge, a small Suffolk village two miles inland from the coast, surrounded by marshland, has looked much the same for centuries. Over the past year, however, it has been transformed. Huge swathes of the surrounding countryside have been dug into a strange lunar landscape of sand and soil to make way for construction associated with Sizewell C, including a vast accommodation campus for workers on the outskirts of the village. The scale of the site is only really clear from aerial photographs, which shows a patchwork of grey, orange and brown where there once was lush green. And this is just the beginning. Last week, the Government pledged £14.2 billion for the project at Sizewell, which will eventually provide low-carbon electricity for six million homes for a lifespan of 60 years. The only published overall cost for the scheme was £20 billion in 2020, but it has reportedly now ballooned to over £40 billion. Still a fair price, many argue, for a source of 'clean, homegrown power' – as Ed Miliband says – to future-proof Britain's energy security. Inevitably, however, it has faced fierce opposition from residents in the surrounding area, with some locals arguing the Government hasn't counted the true cost of the lengthy construction period and the damage to the natural landscape and neighbouring communities. Alison Downes, the director of Stop Sizewell C, began campaigning against the project in 2013 on the grounds of the impact on the local area. 'In the early days we were trying to persuade the project to amend its proposal, including the location of the [accommodation] campus at Eastbridge,' she says. 'It was of grave concern that it was proposed for 3,000 people – it's gone down a little bit, but not much.' Then, she says, as she learnt more about the project, 'all these other issues [came] to the fore.' Downes, a career campaigner, has wisely focused on scrutinising Sizewell on issues of national, rather than localised, importance. Stop Sizewell C argues that the project is bad value for money, will be too slow to address climate change (it will take at least 10-12 years to build, according to the EDF), and will ultimately load too much risk onto the taxpayer. Sizewell C is supposed to be built to almost exactly the same specifications as Hinkley Point C – which has spiralled in time and budget – using European pressurised water reactor (EPR) technology. 'It was very clear that the EPR reactor specifically had this terrible track record wherever it's been built,' says Downes. 'The local issues are still of great concern. But the main thrust of our campaign has been about those macro issues in terms of sizes, role in the UK's energy mix, about the sort of unpredictability of the delivery track record, cost over funds and budget, schedule overruns…' For others, the local impact still looms large. Peering through the metal fencing that encircles the 900-acre site are Chris Wilson and Jenny Kirtley, two other residents who have protested against the construction of Sizewell C for more than a decade. They are both part of the Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) group, the other of the local campaign groups. Kirtley, who grew up in nearby Leiston, says the site chosen for the project 'is not fit for purpose,' due to the country roads, the rapidly eroding coastline, and fact that the site is within the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths National Landscape and so should be protected. The RSPB has joined in protesting against the site on the basis of its proximity to the Minsmere nature reserve, saying last year that: 'We believe that wildlife will be damaged during the lengthy construction period and will be in a worse state once development is completed.' Kirtley hoped the change in government would mean a change in approach to the Sizewell C. It was granted planning permission under the Conservative government, by then-business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, in July 2022 (despite the Examining Authority recommending it not be approved due to water supply and nature concerns). However, no such change has been forthcoming – instead, Labour have doubled down. In the words of Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Britain will enter a 'new golden age for nuclear' with the 'biggest building programme in a generation'. The scheme will ultimately be paid for by households and businesses through their electricity bills – this includes levies that will begin during the construction phase. 'Some of us have waited years for Labour to get in,' says Kirtley. 'Our last MP [Thérèse Coffey] was really the cause of all this, because she promoted East Anglia as the energy coast. So, I'm afraid Labour will never get in [here] again.' Wilson adds: 'They're just not protecting the area.' Last week's announcement of government funding has not deterred them; TASC have launched a new legal challenge against Sizewell C on the basis that large additional sea defences stretching inland would have to be installed in a 'credible maximum' climate change scenario; these were not included in the project's Development Consent Order (DCO) application and so were not subject to public scrutiny. Wilson's key concern, meanwhile, is the devastation the site would wreak on marine and wildlife, including in the adjacent RSPB Minsmere. TASC has claimed that more than 500m fish could be sucked into the new power station's cooling system if construction goes ahead. (The Government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) has said the fish mortality rates caused by Sizewell C would be 'sustainable'.) When the site was approved, Wilson says, 'it was an ideological thing that just overrode all the environmental damage.' If it goes ahead, he says he will move. 'I just couldn't cope with seeing everything ripped up. I've been retired for 10 or 12 years now, and I've spent a lot of that retirement just fighting Sizewell C. I don't want to spend the last 10 years of my life just watching the destruction.' In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kirtley also campaigned against neighbouring Sizewell B, and says it turned the next town over, Leiston, into an 'absolute nightmare' as the traffic worsened and an influx of temporary workers pushed prices up and caused trouble in the pubs. 'We went to visit two years into the build of Hinkley Point C, and you have no idea what the traffic was like,' says Kirtley. 'And Hinkley's feeder town is Bridgwater, which has a population of 50-60,000 – we've got 6,000 here in Leiston, and they are already struggling.' These concerns are borne out in the town centre. One young couple in Leiston say 'rent has doubled, or even tripled'. At the time of writing, family homes were listed online for £3,000-£4,000 a month. Nick Darcy, a pub landlord, also remembers the problems Sizewell B caused. 'They tell us that 'it'll be great for business,' but it's not,' he says. 'All that will happen is loads of contractors will come out, and we'll make marginally more money for about 70 per cent more hassle.' During the construction of Sizewell B, he explains, the town was a 'war zone' as locals clashed with out-of-town contractors and fights in the pubs were commonplace. Moreover, he argues the impact – both on traffic and the local environment – has already proved to be greater than the last time. 'A local ex-MP came in with leaflets against Sizewell C a couple of years ago, and I said, 'I run a bar in a nuclear town, that relies on nuclear business,' and wouldn't hear anything against it,' he continues. 'But now seeing them digging out my entire town in the process, my attitude has done a complete 180.' One of his patrons, who introduces himself as Terry, agrees. 'I helped build Sizewell B,' he says. 'This time, they've destroyed the place, ripped all the trees down. It's heartbreaking.' He recognises, however, that there are 'two sides to the story.' The other side, apart from the energy the new nuclear station will provide, is the jobs and opportunities Sizewell C says it will bring to the area. Last month, Sizewell C announced it would build a new post-16 college in the area, due to open in 2027; it has also pledged to deliver 500 jobs for people in Ipswich and 500 jobs for people in Lowestoft. However, critics argue that roughly half of the site's staff – and a much higher proportion of those in highly skilled roles – will be directly transplanted from its sister project at Hinkley Point. Downes describes the government's funding announcement as a 'massive blow.' Still, however, she hasn't given up on campaigning for the project to be dropped entirely. 'There are so many uncertainties down the line,' she says. 'Basically, it isn't over 'til it's over.'
Channel 4
10-06-2025
- Science
- Channel 4
Debate: should the UK be betting big on nuclear energy?
We're joined by Tim Gregory, a nuclear chemist and author of 'Going Nuclear; How the Atom Will Save the World', and Alison Downes, Executive Director of Stop Sizewell C.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How long will it take for Sizewell C power station to make energy bills lower?
Rachel Reeves has signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant, in a bid to give the UK more control over its energy supplies and to tackle the climate crisis. The Chancellor is set to confirm the funding for the new plant in Suffolk at the GMB Congress on Tuesday ahead of the Treasury's spending review on Wednesday. It will mark the first nuclear power plant to be completed in more than half-a-century, with the site expected to produce enough power for six million homes when it opens. Energy secretary Ed Miliband said the UK needs "new nuclear" to deliver "a golden age of clean energy abundance" to bring down energy bills and "tackle the climate crisis". However, campaigners have warned that the final bill for the project will be far higher than expected, with one group describing it as "HS2 mark 2", and fear the plant may be "obsolete" by the time it is built. So, will the Sizewell C nuclear plant lower our energy bills? And if so, how long will it take? Sizewell C will be located near the small fishing village of Sizewell, on the Suffolk coast between Aldeburgh and Southwold. It is being built next to Sizewell B, a pressurised water reactor nuclear power plant, which began operating in 1995 and is the last nuclear plant to be completed in the UK. Some locals fear the environmental impact of Sizewell C. Jenny Kirtley of the Together Against Sizewell C group told ITV News: "You've only got to look around the area and see the devastation that's happened. "There are a huge mountains of earth everywhere and of course the wildlife is suffering. The deer don't know where to go. They're rambling around everywhere. The birds are leaving their nests." Also concerned about the impact on the local economy, Kirtley added: "We've got 6,000 people living around here so where are people going to live? We know rents are going sky-high so it's going to get worse." Click below to see the latest East England headlines The chancellor has signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant. Meanwhile Rolls-Royce has been named as the preferred bidder to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in a programme backed by £2.5 billion of taxpayers' cash. The government said its investment will go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and support thousands more jobs across the UK. The company Sizewell C has already signed £330 million in contracts with local companies, with 70% of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British suppliers. Alison Downes of the Stop Sizewell C campaign group, said ministers have not "come clean" about the full cost of the project, which her group previously estimated could come to around £40 billion. 'Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C?," she said. Miliband has denied suggestions that the project will be 'HS2 mark 2' – a reference to the high-speed rail project that ballooned in cost amid repeated delays. 'I don't agree with that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, arguing that because the plant is a "replica" of the Hinkley Point C station, under construction in Somerset, "we can be confident it can be built cheaper and faster". The plant is expected to be operational some time in the 2030s. Pressed on how long the project will take, Miliband told the Today programme: 'Around a decade. That's what we believe is likely, mid-2030s is the date that we're putting on this.' EDF Energy, which owns 16.5% of the project, said in 2023 that in a "best-case scenario", the "earliest that one of the two reactors could be operational would be the end of 2033". Hereward Phillpot, a lawyer for the company, said the schedule for the project anticipates that both reactors will be operational by mid-2034. In 2022, the previous Conservative government bought out China General Nuclear Power Group, meaning the state now owns 83.5% of the project, Sky News reported. Environmental activist and founder of green energy company Ecotricity, Dale Vince, said nuclear projects are "never on time", pointing out that Hinkley Point C was originally meant to be switched-on in 2017 and is now expected to be operational from 2031. Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain on 10 June, Miliband accepted that the completion of the plant will not immediately have an impact on people's energy bills. "It isn't, but it's about the long-term," he said, suggesting more investment in nuclear will give Britain greater control and security over its energy supplies. "My position is that we need all of these low-carbon alternatives. At the moment, we're stuck on the fossil fuel rollercoaster," the energy secretary said. "There's gas markets internationally, which shape the price, controlled by petro-states and dictators. We're doing the short-term things, like solar and wind, and we're doing the long-term things – and it's good for jobs as well." Sizewell C has said the project could deliver more than £1-1.5 billion of annual savings across the electricity system when it is up and running, but it is hard to tell how this will be passed down to ordinary household bills. Vince argued that due to funding coming from people's household bills, "billpayers will be forced to subsidise Sizewell for years, no matter how much the costs balloon". He said keeping the plant safe from an eroding Suffolk coastline "will cost billions more, and every upgrade will land on our energy bills". Read more Voices: Could 'going nuclear' finally end Ed Miliband's career? (The Independent) Rolls-Royce to build Britain's first mini nuclear reactors (The Telegraph) China banned from investing in Sizewell C, energy secretary Ed Miliband vows (The Independent)
Arabian Post
10-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
UK Invests £14 Billion in Nuclear Revival
A decisive £14.2 billion funding package has been confirmed to propel the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station and to seed the development of the country's first small modular reactor fleet. The government asserts this marks a pivotal moment in reshaping the national energy landscape, targeting energy security, net‑zero goals, and economic growth through job creation and industrial benefits. Energy secretary Ed Miliband described the commitment as heralding a 'golden age of nuclear', driven by the need to break free from volatile fossil‑fuel dependencies and rapidly rising electricity demand projected for mid‑century. The financing will facilitate two French-designed EPR reactors at Sizewell C in Suffolk—expected to supply electricity for approximately six million households—and support a pioneering SMR programme by Rolls‑Royce SMR, designed to generate up to 1.5 GW across multiple sites. The Sizewell C project has been under consideration since 2010, and the latest capital injection resolves enduring uncertainties surrounding its fate. State funding of £14.2 billion, alongside previous public commitments, brings total taxpayer investment to nearly £17.8 billion. EDF holds a 16.2% share in the project, with government ownership at 83.8% as of December—which is likely to shift over time. ADVERTISEMENT At the height of construction, Sizewell C is expected to employ around 10,000 people and create 1,500 apprenticeship roles. Contracts totalling £330 million have already been awarded locally, with forecasts indicating up to 70% of future contracts going to UK‑based suppliers, encompassing over 3,500 domestic firms. The SMR competition concluded with Rolls‑Royce SMR chosen as the preferred builder after two years of evaluation against rivals Holtec and GE Hitachi. HM Treasury has pledged £2.5 billion for SMR development over five years, and government agency Great British Nuclear anticipates deploying three Rolls‑Royce reactors, generating around 3 GW and supporting 3,000 jobs at peak construction. Rolls‑Royce SMR emphasises its reactors will be factory‑built pressurised water designs intended to reduce cost, complexity, and delivery times, with grid connection anticipated in the mid‑2030s. Chief executive Chris Cholerton hailed the decision as 'a milestone achievement' for domestic growth and high‑skilled jobs. Critics caution that such megaprojects often encounter cost overruns and delays—Hinkley Point C being cited as a cautionary precedent. Detractors warn that the Sizewell C cost may escalate to £40 billion and that consumer electricity bills may increase by approximately £1 monthly to fund the investment recovery. Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C questioned whether full costs have been disclosed and argued the project risks burdening taxpayers and households. The government contends it has learned from Hinkley by establishing a new regulatory and commercial framework intended to align shareholder incentives with schedule and budget adherence. Ofgem will act as economic regulator to safeguard consumer interests. Complementary investments include £2.5 billion in fusion energy research over five years; £6 billion towards the submarine industrial base, and subsequent investments in advanced fuel infrastructure aimed at reducing reliance on non‑domestic nuclear fuel sources. EDF's UK CEO Simone Rossi welcomed the funding decision as an affirmation of Hinkley Point C's role in revitalising Britain's nuclear expertise and capacity. Industry leaders such as Tom Greatrex of the Nuclear Industry Association view the integrated Sizewell C and SMR strategy as a crucial industrial and export opportunity for British nuclear manufacturing.
The Independent
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Spending review latest: Government accused of not ‘coming clean' over full costs of Sizewell C nuclear plant
Ministers have been accused of not 'coming clean' about the costs of nuclear power projects, as the chancellor signs off £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant. Rachel Reeves has committed billions to nuclear power projects as she prepares to use Wednesday's spending review to allocate funding for major infrastructure projects over the rest of the decade. The Suffolk plant, which ministers said would power the equivalent of six million homes, is expected to take around a decade to complete, with officials hoping it will be operational before the end of the 2030s. Energy secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear power capacity was needed to deliver a 'golden age of clean energy abundance'. But the announcement has been criticised by some, who say the full cost of the Sizewell C plant could be as much as £40 billion. Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said: 'Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C?' China banned from investing in Sizewell C, energy secretary Ed Miliband vows China will be blocked from investing in the new Sizewell C power station, the energy secretary has said. Asked whether China would be able to invest in the new power station, in Suffolk, Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'No'. But he declined to rule out investment from other foreign governments, saying: 'I'm not going to go into who the private bidders are. We've got a process at the moment. 'It's majority public investment in this, in Sizewell C. We're going to get some private investment in, but obviously, that always goes through national security checks. 'It's about making sure that any bidders… are people you would want owning part of your nuclear power station.' Athena Stavrou10 June 2025 10:27 Ministers accused of 'not coming clean' about full cost of Sizewell C Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said ministers had not 'come clean' about the full cost of the project, which the group have previously estimated could be some £40 billion. She said: 'Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C?' Athena Stavrou10 June 2025 10:26 Sizewell C nuclear plant to be built with £14.2bn government funding Rachel Reeves has agreed to pump billions of pounds into Britain's nuclear energy sector, putting £14.2bn towards construction of the new Sizewell C nuclear power station. The multi-billion pound investment will be confirmed by the chancellor at the GMB union's annual congress on Tuesday, just days before she is expected to make sweeping cuts to unprotected departments at Wednesday's spending review. The Suffolk plant, which ministers said would power the equivalent of six million homes, is expected to take around a decade to complete, with officials hoping it will be operational before the end of the 2030s. Athena Stavrou10 June 2025 10:08
