Campaigners will protest at Hinkley Point on Sunday lunchtime against plans to destroy many acres of open countryside well in advance of major consents being agreed for two proposed nuclear reactors.

Jim Duffy of Stop Hinkley writes:

Campaigners will protest at Hinkley Point on Sunday lunchtime against plans to destroy many acres of open countryside well in advance of major consents being agreed for two proposed nuclear reactors.

The protest is part of an 'Action Weekend' of activities which includes a day of talks and workshops for campaigners and a disco evening. The Saturday workshop includes national speakers Ben Ayliffe from Greenpeace, Neil Crumpton from the Bellona Institute and formerly Friends of the Earth and Professor Chris Busby of Green Audit.

Stop Hinkley has invited local and regional groups and individuals to demonstrate outside the gates of Hinkley at midday, carrying banners and placards opposing the destruction. Then a guided tour will take place of the green areas which will be bulldozed, dynamited and concreted over, a mock nuclear 'boffin' pointing out the wildlife habitats which will be lost. The tour will finish with a picnic at the shoreline where a new jetty is proposed.

EdF, who propose to build not just one but two giant European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) on the 435 acre site, have already cemented over badger setts on the land (- see attached photos). It is believed that Natural England's licence conditions for blocking the setts have not been met as alternative artificial setts had not been provided alongside the existing ones. Signs alongside the cemented setts seem to imply these were man-made boreholes but their irregular nature and slanted angles suggest otherwise. Stop Hinkley has written to Natural England over this matter.

Concerns over the proposed EPRs include:
- The scale of the build - similar reactors currently being constructed are single reactors - EdF plan to build two at Hinkley. The site will be four times that of the existing A and B sites combined. The output at 3,200MW will be eight times that of Hinkley A and three times that of Hinkley B, with subsequently high levels of nuclear waste.
- The EPR uses 'high burn up' fuel which may be more dangerous in operation and will require cooling in secure ponds for 100 years before it can be conditioned for so-called 'disposal'. It will be poisonous for tens of thousands of years. No site has been identified for its eventual 'disposal' and a Hinkley fuel store will hold it for 160 years or indefinitely if no final repository is found. One of the two communities in Cumbria expected to host the repository is due to debate withdrawing its preliminary offer.

| full story | All UK's n-waste coming to Somerset | www.stophinkley.org | Other Related News: Outrage at Licence for 'Dangerous' Hinkley | Hinkley Nuclear Waste Dump Threat | Interfaith Peace Walk Towards a Nuclear Free Future |

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