Hinkley mud dumping delayed a few days

The two giant dredgers MV Sloeber and MV Padagger - at 91m long, size of a football field - are still on their way from Germany.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) are again repeating that the mud is only a bit radioactive and assessed by experts under international rules.  As criticisms are striking home, they've updated their website statement.  No mention that they'd used IAEA rules from 2003, not the 2015 ones expanded to cover harm to marine life, but their 'experts' in CEFAS and NRW didn't notice.  Nor mention that their experts were wrong in saying the mud is no more radioactive at a few metres depth in the sea-bed - which is to be excavated - when the data show significantly more radioactive decay products than in the surface mud.  This worse radioactivity reflects the historically worse discharges from the nuclear plants at Hinkley Point over decades. Nor do NRW mention that their experts have not assessed where the dumped toxic material ends up, with metals and radioactivity concentrated in the marine food-chain and in surf, some blown ashore in microspray. Because NRW failed to require adequate tests to international standards, they can't be sure the Hinkley mud does not exceed the "de minimis" radioactivity level over which sea dumping is banned.

It now looks as if NRW's arguments will be tested in the High Court, financed by Crowd-funding.