Days after EDF announced plans to build a fourth nuclear reactor at the Sizewell nuclear park on England’s east coast, several people blocked the entry gate on Monday morning, November 26. The announcement kicked off an 11-week consultation period, which protesters said was not long enough for full evaluation of the proposal, amounting to “a sham process which is nothing more than a cynical box-ticking exercise.”
Their protest also highlighted the utility’s plan to store on-site all of the radioactive waste from a pair of reactors now being decommissioned (the Sizewell A units), as well as from the still-running Sizewell B and the proposed Sizewell C.
With their arms locked together inside metal tubes, four women were left lying on the roadway opposite the local Vulcan Arms pub for six hours before police used power tools to cut them apart and arrest them. The youngest was charged with obstructing a highway and ordered to appear in North East Suffolk Magistrates Court on December 27, while three other women were released with a caution.
For more information, visit stopnuclearpoweruk.net.