Two EPRs to be built by EDF in Suffolk
The London High Court has dismissed a legal challenge against the planned Sizewell C EPR nuclear project in Suffolk, on England’s east coast.
In 2022, a campaign group Together Against Sizewell C brought the project to court over an alleged failure of the government to consider alternatives to nuclear power in the region and an insufficient environmental assessment related to water supply.
Judge David Holgate of the London High Court dismissed the challenge on Thursday claiming there was nothing “artificial or unlawfully limiting” in a policy relying on nuclear power and renewables.
Holgate said the challenge was “an illegitimate attempt” to rewrite the government’s policy on the Sizewell C new-build “by pretending that the central policy objective is … to produce clean energy, without any regard to diversity of energy sources and security of supply”.
The judge also upheld the lawfulness of the government’s approach to the water supply at the proposed site.
Together Against Sizewell C said the court’s judgement will not put an end to their efforts against the new-build project.
In November 2022, the government confirmed Sizewell C would go ahead, backing the scheme with a £700m (€816m, $889m) stake and saying it wanted to see more nuclear projects being prepared.
The station will have two 1,600-MW EPR plants. It will replicate the design of the Hinkley Point C twin-EPR project in Somerset, southwest England.
