Building Sizewell C would be a nuclear-sized disaster

I love Suffolk. This Christmas I will be there with my family and we’ll almost certainly walk up the coast, joining dog-walkers, bird-watchers, hikers and even swimmers in one of the most beautiful and unspoiled parts of the UK. The secret of Suffolk is its relative inaccessibility. No major motorway connects it and once you arrive you’re committed to a sprawling network of country lanes that twist through heathland and grazing marsh, mudflats and reedbeds. Minsmere, a nature reserve that’s home to 6,000 wildlife species, is among its glories. The nightjar, the woodlark, the Dartford warbler and the silver-studded butterfly are just some of the rare species found there.

At least for the time being.

Not just the heritage coast, but quite possibly the entire county, could be changed for ever by the arrival of two new European pressurised reactors (EPRs). ‘Sizewell C, a proposed new nuclear power station in Suffolk, has the potential to generate the reliable low carbon electricity the country needs for decades to come’ is the claim made by EDF Energy, the French-owned company behind the project. It also has the potential to be a disastrous and expensive mistake. Many believe it already is.

First there’s the site, which, if this were an episode of Yes Minister, might have been chosen for its comedy potential. Next to a world-famous bird sanctuary? In an area well-known for serious coastal erosion? As the avocets and warblers take flight, the entire thing could be reclaimed by a vengeful sea. The site is too small. It’s poorly connected. (EDF put forward the idea of an 800m jetty to allow access by water. The idea sank.) Imagine 1,000 HGVs arriving every day, 10,000 cars, hundreds of buses. Actually, if you know the area, you can’t.