High Court injunction to stop Hinkley mud

Demonstration just before the hearing at the Cardiff High Court
The claimant Cian Ciaran next to Neil McEvoy AM right of centre

The application for an Injunction opened today MONDAY 17th SEPT at the High Court in Cardiff

Protesters are optimistic.  The judge gave an adjournment for 7 days to NNB GenCo (EdF) whose lawyer changed their defence to claim the EIA for the new Hinkley Point Nuclear Power station covers dumping in Welsh waters.  The judge gave them 7 days to show that from the 2000-page EIA covering the development in England.

Barry&Vale FoE think NNB GenCo on a loser. Natural Resources Wales has accepted that the Hinkley Point EIA does not cover dumping in the Welsh part of the Severn Estuary, where EIA is mandatory due to its Special Area of Conservation status. Moreover, an EIA for a project in Wales has to be advertised in Wales and subject to consultation by the Welsh public, which the nuclear station's EIA was not.

The claimant (Cian Ciaran) was not in a position to put up a bond for costs in the event that his application for an interim injunction failed (pending full hearing of the case).  So the judge was unable to grant the injunction immediately.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45546550   https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-protest-held-cardiff-15162790

Judge for the case was Milwyn Jarman QC
Chair, Legal Wales Foundation / Cymru'r Gyfraith 

Unfortunately that means a further 7 days dumping of toxic mud with radioactive pollutants, including possible "hot" particles from Hinkley's nuclear reactors.  There are suggestions of a French-style chain of small boats around the dump site to halt it.

Professor Keith Barnham told a Press Conference prior to the Court hearing that the Magnox Hinkley-A reactor was run as a plutonium factory in its early years (1960s).  Spent fuel elements from the reactor were fragile and bits broke off into the cooling water pond.  When the fuel elements were transported off to Sellafield to be processed for plutonium, the broken off pieces accumulated as sludge. There has been at least one leak over several months from the ponds, indicated by high uranium in soils; the leak may well have reached the Bridgewater Bay sea.  The authorities shy away from looking for plutonium and other radioactive decay elements for fear of uncovering this past mismanagement and being faced with a costly clean-up problem.  Prof. Barnham's investigations are to be submitted as evidence to the full Court hearing.

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