The license but not the monitoring is at
Further questions may be put to NRW via marinelicensing@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
This is Barry&Vale FoE's new publicity leaflet on the issues.
** Why call it "Hinkley's mud". It's not 'nuclear sludge' from inside the reactor, not mud from the nuclear operations, but estuary mud that picked up radioactive elements from the plant's liquid discharges (with microparticle 'dirt'). While these discharges were licensed at the time, limits were not necessarily enforced and current permits are stricter. What's in the mud is largely unknown; the few samples taken of 'historical' mud in 2009 at a few metres below the seabed show elevated levels of uranium and radium. Those samples have been lost so cannot be re-tested. There may be plutonium, since its production was a major purpose of Hinkley Point A station, but this was secret.
NRW appear not to understand that Cardiff Grounds was licensed for disposal of normal dredging to keep open navigation channels - material that achieves high dispersal in the tidal currents, not heavy clays that accumulate on the seabed. The English guidance suggests that a special site should be designated for disposal of such material. But NRW ignored this and has gone for Conditions that require the heavy material be spread evenly over the seabed at the dump site, apparently on the fear that the dumped clays might impede shipping.
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