Latest legal challenge against Sizewell C launched

A legal challenge against the planned Sizewell C nuclear power station has been lodged at the High Court.

Campaign group Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) claimed the plant wanted to add additional coastal flood defences at the site, which were not included in the original planning application.

TASC said it raised the concerns with Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, but after they were "not addressed", it submitted an application for judicial review.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. Sizewell C declined to comment.

In the approved plans, Sizewell C said the power station would be built on a platform 7m above the current sea level and protected by "a sea defence structure which will be more than 14m above mean sea level".

TASC claimed the power station now wanted to "build two more flood barriers, standing at nine and 10 metres high, further inland to protect the power station" in the event of a "worst-case scenario" flooding.

The group believed the additional defences should be consulted on and would "disrupt nearby protected areas of wildlife".

The BBC approached Sizewell C for details about the alleged extra defences, but it declined to comment.

TASC said it had contacted Miliband to ask him to consider revoking or changing the development consent order, which was approved in 2022, but the request was not accepted.

It has now submitted an application for judicial review of this decision and argued that the Secretary of State breached his obligations and duties in rejecting its request, and the decision was "irrational".

Chris Wilson from TASC said: "We must not let the Secretary of State of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero allow Sizewell C Ltd to use the unpredictability of climate change to defer for decades the assessment and public scrutiny of the impacts of these two huge overland flood barriers."

A spokesperson from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "New nuclear power stations such as Sizewell C will play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and net zero, while securing thousands of good, skilled jobs and supporting our energy independence beyond 2030.

"Development consent was granted for Sizewell C on 20 July 2022, having considered all relevant information."

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