Claimant in challenge to Sizewell C development consent vows to go to Court of Appeal

July 13, 2023

Local campaigners have vowed to appeal the High Court's decision to reject a legal challenge over the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's decision to grant development consent for the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk.

The claimant, Together Against Sizewell C Limited (TASC) is a private company set up by members of a local community group as a special purpose vehicle for the bringing of the claim and to receive public donations to that end.

TASC was refused permission for its judicial review application by Mr Justice Holgate in a decision handed down last month (22 June).

TASC's grounds made a range of claims, mainly centred around the contention that the government failed to consider the issue of water supply. It also included a ground that argued the government acted irrationally in concluding that the power station would be clear of nuclear material by 2140.

But Holgate J dismissed all seven grounds brought by the claimant as either unarguable or "totally without merit".

In a statement announcing its intention to appeal, TASC argued that Holgate J was "wrong in law":

To find the permanent desalination plant need not be assessed because it was not the preferred option.
To say "there was no option to assess", ignoring the possibility for choosing and assessing the impact of a permanent desalination plant
To find the fact that the water supply was not part of the application was something the Business Secretary was entitled to take into account.
To find there was no functional inter-dependence between the water supply and the power station.
To find there was no basis to find that the Business Secretary was irrational to judge that the power station and its water supply were separate projects
To say that there is no principle under the Habitats Directive requiring assessment at the earliest possible stage
Not to deal with TASC's submission that the permanent desalination plant option could have been assessed.

The chair of Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), Jenny Kirtley, said: "It is imperative we appeal Judge Holgate's perverse sanctioning of Sizewell C even though the proposed nuclear plant does not have a guaranteed mains water supply, without which it cannot operate.

"We also appeal his ruling on EDF's incomprehensible claim that the Sizewell C site will be fully decommissioned by 2140. This date has been flatly contradicted by the Office of Nuclear Regulation, who told TASC it will take 70 years after the plant stops generating for spent fuel to cool sufficiently, be moved offsite and the store decommissioned."

She added: "The only way the 2140 deadline could be met at Sizewell C would be to slash its operating life by nearly 30 years, meaning generation stops in 2070, driving a coach and horses through this project's claimed commercial viability and contribution to meeting the UK's climate change goals."

Adam Carey