https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bill-nighy-joins-campaign-to-stop-new-sizewell-nuclear-power-station-dtvvd95qq

Bill Nighy joins campaign to stop new Sizewell nuclear power station
Ben Webster, Environment Editor
Tuesday April 28 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Bill Nighy is among those opposing the proposed nuclear reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk

Celebrities and business leaders have joined forces to try to block plans for a new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast.

Bill Nighy and David Morrissey, the actors, Maggi Hambling, the painter, and Jon Hunt, the billionaire founder of Foxtons estate agents, say that the site for the proposed twin nuclear reactors at Sizewell is “totally unsuitable” because it is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, will damage a nature reserve and is on an unstable coast vulnerable to sea level rise.

They are among 60 prominent people who live in the area or have connections to it who are calling on the government to step in to delay consideration of the proposal until the coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

EDF, the French state controlled company planning to build the reactors with Chinese partner CGN, is preparing to submit a planning application within weeks and wants to start construction in 2022.

In a letter to The Times, the group of 60 opponents says that the planning process would be compromised because the current crisis means officials and residents would be unable to scrutinise it properly.

They also argue that the investment in Sizewell C, which could provide seven per cent of the UK’s electricity, would “suck valuable financial resources” from other less risky forms of low-carbon power, such as wind and solar.

Stop Sizewell C, the group which coordinated the letter, said that up to 600 lorries a day would run through small villages during construction and a temporary town would be created to accommodate 2,400 workers.

Mr Nighy, who used to live in Theberton with his former partner actress Diana Quick, said: “It is beyond belief that EDF is pressing forward during these terrible and uncertain times with a project so misguided, and which even the government’s own advisers find deeply concerning.

“If Sizewell C is allowed to go ahead, we will be left with an outdated form of energy that will not fit to any degree in our new world, and this internationally famous environment will be desecrated. This is a time to protect our ecosystems, not shatter them.”

Andy Wood, chief executive of Adnams brewery in Southwold, Suffolk, who signed the letters, said: “If there were not already two nuclear power stations at Sizewell, no-one would consider building something the size of Sizewell C here.

“Suffolk is poorly equipped to facilitate EDF’s delivery of this major project, lacking transport infrastructure and a significant local workforce with relevant skills. Thousands of workers from outside the region will have to be accommodated in a rural area, which – coupled with traffic congestion – will significantly impact my business and others in an area prized for its beauty, tranquility and dark skies.”

EDF and CGN are building the £22 billion Hinkley Point C in Somerset, the first new nuclear power station for a generation which has been repeatedly delayed.

EDF has proposed an alternative funding model for Sizewell C under which consumers would share the risk of cost overruns and delays by paying for the project while it is still under construction.

EDF said that the alternative funding model could make nuclear power comparative in cost to offshore wind

It added that the examination stage of the application process, when feedback will be sought, was unlikely to start for 5-6 months.

To: The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy

cc The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Minister of State, BEIS, Nadhim Zahawi, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, BEIS, The Rt Hon Therese Coffey MP, Peter Aldous MP, Dr Dan Poulter MP, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy

31 March 2020

Dear Secretary of State,

We write as individuals deeply concerned about EDF’s proposals to build twin nuclear reactors at Sizewell C. While we welcome EDF’s decision on 26 March to defer submitting its application for development consent “for a few weeks”, we ask you to instruct EDF to delay further until all coronavirus restrictions have been lifted and time and resources are available to focus fully on an application of this scale, because of its significant national and local impacts. The robustness of the DCO process would be severely compromised if there were any constraints on the Planning Inspectorate, Statutory Advisers, Local Authorities, Parish and Town Councils, Groups or individuals.

We additionally wish to emphasise our considerable and rising opposition to EDF’s damaging project. The Sizewell site is totally unsuitable, lying within the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, hemmed in by protected habitats including RSPB Minsmere, and on an unstable and eroding coastline. The site is much smaller than government guidelines suggest is required for two reactors (two thirds the size of Hinkley Point C) and thanks to flooding caused by climate change, at risk of becoming an island by the time any plants are decommissioned or spent fuel is removed. The RSPB’s view is that Sizewell is not a suitable place to build a new nuclear power station, and that significant damage cannot be avoided or mitigated. The project is at odds with DEFRA’s 25 year plan to increase biodiversity.

HM government’s National Policy statement recognises that Sizewell is significantly more environmentally sensitive than other designated sites, and your statutory advisers – the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Marine Management Organisation – have expressed deep concerns to the Planning Inspectorate about EDF’S preparations for DCO.

Suffolk is poorly equipped to facilitate EDF’s delivery of this major project, lacking transport infrastructure and a significant local workforce with relevant skills. Thousands of workers from outside the region will have to be accommodated in a rural area, which – coupled with traffic congestion – will significantly impact tourism and other businesses in a region prized for its beauty, tranquility and dark, star-filled, skies. 

“Big nuclear” remains very expensive compared to the rapidly falling prices of other energy sources, and the poor construction record of EDF, including at Hinkley Point, means that it will be impossible for EDF to predict accurately how much Sizewell C will cost and how long it will take to build. Furthermore, located in the south of the UK, Sizewell C would not serve your objectives to “level up” the country. With more than 180 studies now published into 100% renewable energy scenarios, we question whether “big nuclear” remains a desirable part of the energy mix. While we welcome EDF’s recent statements about the realistic prospects of extending operations at Sizewell B by a further 20 years, we firmly believe that any investment in Sizewell C will suck valuable financial resources from better technologies, and therefore we cannot support this project.

Signed: 

Dr Andy Wood OBE DL, Chief Executive, Adnams plc

Jon and Lois Hunt, Heveningham Hall

James Hopkins, Executive Chairman, Hopkins Homes

William Kendall DL, Entrepreneur

Bill Turnbull, Broadcaster

Bill Nighy, Actor

Diana Quick, Actor

Maggi Hambling CBE, Painter and Sculptor

Matthew Freud, Head of Freud Communications

Libby Purves OBE, Broadcaster

Paul Greengrass, Film Director

David Morrissey, Actor, Director

The Duke of Grafton, Euston Estate

The Lord Marlesford DL, House of Lords

Caroline Cranbrook OBE, President of the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival

The Rt Hon Ben Gummer

Sir Kenneth Carlisle, former MP and Lady Carla Carlisle

Sir David Madel, former MP

Geoffrey Probert DL, President Suffolk Preservation Society

William Sieghart CBE, Entrepreneur 

Justin Dowley, Chairman, Melrose Industries plc

Clare Howes DL

Sir Christopher Howes, former CEO of Crown Estates

Caroline Slocock, Director of Civil Exchange,

Major-General (Rtd) John Sutherell CB, CBE 

Guy Heald, Chairman, Hotel Folk

Sir Michael and Lady Hopkins, Hopkins Architects

Cllr David Wood, Chair, Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership

Tim Rowan Robinson DL, Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival

Sir Charles Burrell, Knepp Castle Estate, Rewilding pioneer

Isabella Tree, Author and Travel Writer

Ruth Watson, Restaurateur and Hotelier

Robert Townshend, Townshend Landscape Architects

Richard Ellis, Chairman of Original Cottages

Julia Blackburn, Writer, FRSL

Hugh Brody, Anthropologist

Nick Burfield, former Policy Director, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce

Michael Pritt, Owner, Wentworth Hotel, Aldeburgh

Sir Humphrey Burton CBE, Writer and Broadcaster 

Helen Atkinson Wood, Actor

John Morton, Writer

Jo Deakin, Journalist

Mark Whitby BSc, FICE, FREng, Hon FRIBA, former President, Institute of Civil Engineers

Theresa Tollemache, Director of Volga Linen

Christian Blackshaw, Concert Pianist

Edward Creasy, Corporate Chairman

Molly Dineen, Film Director

Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Writer, FRSL

Dan Franklin, Publisher

Rev. Canon Christine Redgrave 

Amanda Maxwell Dip RBS, TCPD, ARAD, Classical Ballet Dancer 

Anthony Silverstone, Consultant Gynaecologist 

Beverley Silverstone, Freelance Arts Administrator

Jan Etherington, TV Comedy Scriptwriter

Major Philip Hope-Cobbold DL, Glemham Hall

Plus 3 names who signed privately