The campaign against two new nuclear reactors at Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey is gathering force on several fronts. In the immediate vicinity of the site, local people are beginning to appreciate the vast scale of the development (about the size of Holyhead, the biggest town on Anglesey), the extent of environmental damage involved, the social and cultural impact of the invasion. They’re also beginning to realise that few of the promised flood of jobs will actually be local.
Horizon Nuclear, owned by Japanese transnational Hitachi since 2012, applied to the county council planning committee to start clearing the site, even though the development consent order to go ahead could still be a year away. Pre-emptive or what?
Only councillors from the Wylfa area were allowed to speak and it was waved through unopposed. However, there is still a big hole in the finances. Theresa May, the Westminster prime minister, has given the go-ahead for pouring in billions of UK taxpayers’ money but the whole edifice still looks very shaky. Billion-dollar US construction company Bechtel stood back from actually building the reactors and are now only contracted for project management.
Meanwhile PAWB (People Against Wylfa B) are working closely with Japanese anti-nuclear activists, prepared to picket Hitachi shareholder meetings in our name. After a PAWB delegation visited Tokyo and Fukushima in May 2018, two Japanese delegations came to see us, along with a succession of reporters and film crews.
The Fukushima’s farmers’ union were our first visitors, and they were followed by Friends of the Earth Japan and five academics, one of them from Fukushima University. Inspirational people. With the world in a state of volatility and crisis at the moment, who knows what will happen? But we’ll do our damnedest!
Topics: Nuclear power
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