The UK’s Environment Agency has issued three new environmental permits to NNB Generation Company (Sizewell C) Limited for a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk, on England’s east coast.

The permits are required for the station to operate and will allow it to dispose of and discharge radioactive waste, operate standby power supply systems using diesel generators and discharge returned abstracted seawater and other liquid trade effluents into the North Sea.

The abstracted seawater will come from the cooling water system and two fish recovery and returns systems. The liquid trade effluents will include treated sewage effluent. Abstracted seawater is seawater that has been taken from the sea and used for an industrial process. It is then returned to the sea.