RPT - PREVIEW - Welsh National Assembly To Vote On Motion To Halt Mud Dumping From Hinkley Point

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The National Assembly for Wales will vote Wednesday on a motion to suspend the dumping of potentially contaminated mud from the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Welsh waters, which allegedly can expose people to radioactivity.

In September, UK energy company EDF started to dump mud from the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in the Severn Estuary off Cardiff in order to make way for the construction of a cooling system for another potential Hinkley Point nuclear facility. The EDF works have been met by a series of protests with campaigners demanding that Natural Resources Wales, which has approved the scheme, should suspend EDF license.

Campaigners have repeatedly opposed the relocation of the mud off the Welsh capital, believing that insufficient testing had been carried out to ascertain the potential for contamination of the excavated mud. They have also pointed to the fact that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for mud being excavated from the Hinkley Point to evaluate the possible risks had never been carried out.

The EDF works have been authorized by the Natural Resources Wales, a body sponsored by the Welsh Labor government, with the motion for the license's suspension having been tabled by the lawmakers from the opposition Plaid Cymru - Party of Wales and the Welsh Conservative Party.

Campaigners first sought a legal injunction against further dumping, but called off their action last week, after successfully obtaining permission to present a motion in the Welsh Assembly calling for putting an end to EDF operations.

Neil McEvoy, an independent member of the National Assembly, indicated in his comments to Sputnik that the campaigners insisted that the EDF should have carried out an EIA before the launch of the works.

"Basically we have already established in court that there was no EIA carried out to dump the mud on Cardiff Grounds ... We have secured the debate in the Assembly for Wednesday but did not call off our court action to get an injunction until we had written confirmation of the motion going forward. So we won the argument that there should have been an EIA at least," he told Sputnik.

McEvoy stressed that the decision will be determined by the balance of political forces in the National Assembly, adding that he anticipated a tight vote in the legislative body.

"All focus now though is back on the politics. It's going to be very interesting. The public concern needs to be recognized and they need to suspend the dumping. We have got the support of the Conservative group and the Plaid Cymru group, so we have got the support of everyone other than Labour," he believed.

The vote in the parliament is expected to be preceded by a protest action outside the National Assembly's building.