Members of Kent’s only Green council say they could be open to the possibility of new nuclear power generation at Dungeness, despite their party’s national policy against it. The Greens took over Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) from the Conservatives in the May election, running it in a minority coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
For several years, the local Conservative MP Damian Collins has been a champion of installing small modular reactors (SMRs) at the site on Romney Marsh, which has been home to two nuclear power stations for decades. Neither are currently producing power. SMRs are a proposed class of fission reactors, which are physically smaller and faster to construct than conventional nuclear reactors.
Green party national policy is that “nuclear power, coal and incineration of waste will be phased out”, but new FHDC leader Cllr Jim Martin (Green) has spoken out on his stance on the potential future uses of Dungeness including his worries around nuclear safety and disposal of nuclear waste. “Anyone who says ‘Oh I’m not concerned about nuclear power’ doesn’t fully appreciate what they’re saying because it has got significant downsides. Me personally, as a person, Jim Martin, I am not in favour of nuclear power generation because of the risk and because of the waste.”
He says that because all the infrastructure for nuclear power already exists on the marsh, then “if the government is going to have SMRs around the country, then Dungeness is a good place. If this was Boris Johnson granting a licence for a coal mine or this was a fracking site I would be the first person out there forming the human chain, but this is much more nuanced. Nuclear generation is carbon free generation, carbon is the big enemy.”
Other FHDC Green councillors have similar positions on the issue. In July, government body Great British Nuclear began a competition where companies developing nuclear technology such as SMRs can register interest to secure government support. EDF, the French energy giant which runs Dungeness B, say they’re interested in the possibilities.
An EDF spokesman said: “We welcome discussions around potential future development opportunities for the area we own on the Dungeness estate. As custodian of land around the site, EDF is happy to engage with any project looking to develop the site in support of the UK’s net zero ambitions.”
In April, Andrew Bowie MP, the government’s nuclear minister, visited Dungeness B and confirmed discussions over a possible future use for the site are ongoing at a government level.
Image Credits: Chris Downer https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4558095 Creative Commons , John Webber Creative Commons , Oast House archive Creative Commons .
There are some exciting opportunities offered by redevelopment at Dungeness – in terms of energy production and employment, and EDF are apparently open to discussions with potential partners. A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting of The Romney Marsh Partnership on behalf of RDC. There was some fascinating discussion of the potential for Dungeness to become a regional ‘energy hub’, producing green energy and jobs – indeed training local people to work and research in this developing sector. It’s all about investment and long term economic commitment of course, but the green transition offers huge possibilities. The Romney Marsh Partnership is an interesting organisation too, for those who don’t know about its endeavours. There’s a good summary here:
https://folkestone.works/romney-marsh-partnership/romney-marsh-partnership-2/