4 months ago
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The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have warmly welcomed last week’s adoption by Folkestone and Hythe District Council of a motion making a commitment ‘to a new era of clean energy production in the district’.
In May 2023, the Green Party formed a minority administration and at the November Council was set a challenge over energy policy when a motion was proposed by the Leader of the Conservative Opposition Group seeking Council support for a new nuclear project on the Dungeness site.
The Conservative Group motion sought to have the Council’s leadership ‘actively promote Dungeness as a location for new nuclear power generation’, with a recent call made by the local Conservative MP for small modular reactors (SMRS) to be brought to the district.
Dungeness A was a first generation Magnox power station, which opened in 1965 and closed in 2006.
Dungeness B was a second generation Advanced Gas Cooled power station. The B station’s history is not a happy one.
In his book, ‘GOING CRITICAL An Unofficial History of British Nuclear Power’, author Walter C Patterson describes the fiasco in detail:
‘Dungeness B proved to be not so much a breakthrough as a breakdown. Ordered in August 1965, it did not even start up until December 1982 – more than seventeen years later. By that time its cost had reached more than five times the 1965 estimate, and its intended output had been scaled down more than 20 per cent. In 1985, two decades after the original order, the second reactor at the station had only just started up. Atomic Power Constructions, the company that won the Dungeness B contract in 1965, had by 1970 collapsed in total disarray, technical, managerial and financial.
‘In the lexicon of the British nuclear establishment Dungeness B has always been discounted as a desperately unfortunate anomaly. History, however, suggests the contrary. Dungeness B was not an anomaly. In the history of British nuclear power Dungeness B was merely the most conspicuous and long-running cock-up in a virtually endless catalogue of cock-ups, in planning, construction and operation’.
In 2009, Dungeness B was shutdown for an extended period. In 2018, the plant had a second scheduled shutdown for inspection and maintenance during which the regulator found critical parts ‘corroded to an unacceptable level’ after which the plant ceased to generate power. French operator EDF was forced to bring forward the formal plant closure date by seven years to 2021, citing ‘significant and ongoing technical difficulties’.[1]
The A plant is now being decommissioned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the B plant is being defuelled by EDF before handover to the NDA.
The Green amendment, which was overwhelmingly carried, instead sought to explore real green energy generation for the district by looking at a range of renewable technologies.
It was proposed by Leader, Councillor Jim Martin, who said:
“We need an integrated energy strategy, one that includes all forms of clean energy generation that we can produce domestically. This (amendment) will review the relative merits of all forms of clean energy generation – wind, solar, hydro, tidal and wave, as well as the installation of the SMR referred to in the motion.”
In support, his Green colleague, Councillor Stephen Scoffham, Cabinet member for Climate, Environment and Bio-diversity, added:
“Finding better ways of generating energy, ways that are genuinely environmentally sound is a key challenge for us locally, nationally and internationally.”
Green Party national policy is to phase out nuclear power generation and look to a future powered by renewables.
The Labour Government’s draft Nuclear National Policy Statement (EN-6) published in November 2009 examined the sites that were initially judged to be potentially suitable for new reactors by the end of 2025.
Of the eleven sites, Dungeness site was ruled out from further consideration as it was recognised that any new reactor on the proposed site would need to be built further back from the coastline to enable adequate sea defences to be put in place which in turn would destroy the shingle ridges which are the subject of strict environmental protection. The RSPB and Natural England made a strong case for the protection of this fragile ecosystem at Dungeness.
The final version of EN-6 in paragraph A.4.3 said Dungeness failed to make the list of potential sites ‘on the grounds of the particular adverse effects to European Sites that the Habitats Regulations Assessment found would flow from its development’.[2] The accompanying Habitats Regulations Assessment for Dungeness concludes: ‘it is unlikely to be possible to develop nuclear generating facilities at Dungeness without adversely affecting the integrity of Dungeness Special Areas of Conservation (SAC)’.[3]
This decision was reaffirmed one year later by the Coalition Government.
Even nuclear operator EDF’s own website concedes that the Dungeness stations are ‘in a unique location in the middle of the Dungeness National Nature Reserve in Kent, a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). It is a diverse landscape home to many unique plants, animals, and birds – one third of all UK plant species are found here at Dungeness.’[4]
Research conducted on behalf of the NFLAs by our advisors Dr Paul Dorfmann and Mr Pete Roche revealed that Britain’s coastal nuclear installations are seriously threatened by climate change with rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges making inundation very likely. In recognition of this risk, the Chief Nuclear Inspector at the Office for Nuclear Regulation Mr Mark Foy has recently instructed his team to prioritise an examination of the preparedness of nuclear operators to meet the threat within the forthcoming round of site inspections.[5]
Dungeness is particularly vulnerable.
A 2020 report commissioned by Kent County Council referenced that the site was low-lying, being less than 70m from the current mean high-water mark. Moreover, this same report states that, with projected changes in sea-level and under combined hazard conditions (where coastal flooding meets high wind), radiation contamination following an accident or incident could significantly impact the population of the South-East of England and even further afield.[6]
Modelling has also indicated that there is a very high probability that the site of the nuclear plant will be subject to a very significant near-term annual flood risk.[7]
The NFLAs are clear that it would be better to look to redevelop the Dungeness site, and other suitable locations in the Folkestone and Hythe district, with renewable energy technologies, rather than awaiting the deployment of any next generation, never-never SMR.
NFLA English Forum Chair, Councillor David Blackburn said:
“The challenge we face is to reduce our carbon emissions now, whilst providing cheaper sustainable electricity to meet our nation’s needs. Nuclear simply cannot do that. None of the SMR designs have yet received regulatory approval, and none have been built.
“The earliest any deployment could take place would be in 2030’s, far too late to address climate change and our energy crisis, but there is no guarantee that any SMR will be operable, safe and commercially viable even by that date.
“Furthermore the Dungeness site has been deemed by two governments to be unsuitable for the further deployment of nuclear technology because of the risk posed to it by climate change and because of its likely impact on the local environment.
“It therefore makes complete sense for local Councillors to instead focus on developing a strategy based upon the deployment of a mixture of green renewable energy technologies that can deliver cheaper, sustainable electricity both now and in the future, and at a fraction of the cost of new nuclear and without saddling the Kent coast with the contamination and radioactive waste that new nuclear inevitably brings.
“The NFLAs would be delighted to have an ongoing dialogue with the Green Administration to take this agenda forward.”
Ends//: For more information contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
1. https://www.waltpatterson.org/goingcritical.pdf
4. https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power-stations/dungeness-b
5. https://news.onr.org.uk/2023/10/considering-the-impact-of-climate-change-in-nuclear-regulation/
7. Annual flood level: Water level at shoreline that local coastal floods exceed on average at least once per year at 2050. Emissions pathway: Moderate emissions cuts (RCP 4.5) consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement 2°C target, median climate sensitivity. Elevation model: CoastalDEM.
