Marinet asks Environment Agency whether Bradwell’s nuclear discharges are legal
Marinet has written, 5th October 2015, to the Environment Agency to ask whether the permission the Agency is giving to Magnox Limited, the company which owns the Bradwell nuclear power station on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, is legal.
Download letter as a pdf file.
Bradwell nuclear power station, Blackwater estuary, Essex.
Photo: BBC.
Magnox Limited is currently decommissioning the Bradwell nuclear power station and has had a permit to discharge nitrates, heavy metals and radioactivity present in liquid wastes arising from a “dissolution process” which it has developed to manage nuclear waste materials present in fuel element debris (FED), see link.
However, the permit expired in on 22nd June 2015 and whilst Magnox Limited applies for a new permit, which is being contested by the Mersea Island Environmental Alliance and others, the Environment Agency has allowed the company to continue to make discharges into the estuary although it has no valid permit, see link.
Marinet believes that this situation is highly irregular, and has therefore asked the Environment Agency to consider whether the situation it is currently permitting is legal.
Note: The Mersea Island Environmental Alliance has established a UK Parliament-based Petition asking Parliament to address these matters, see link.
