The abuse of political power is as dangerous as nuclear power itself [View all]

[kristopher]

The abuse of political power is as dangerous as nuclear power itself
The newly evicted protesters against proposed nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point reject both the technology and the flaunting of democracy

It's been a busy week for the bailiffs. Even as one group was carting people off from the steps of St Paul's in London on Monday night to remove Occupy protesters, so another was storming a Somerset farmhouse early on Wednesday to snuff out a small protest against the proposed two new Hinkley C nuclear power stations.

End of story? Not at all. Occupy will be back and anger in Someset is growing at the way that the nuclear steamroller is gearing up to build its stations. EDF, who went to the high court in London rather than Bristol, tried to get a blanket injunction on anyone going near the site but was thwarted by the court which could see no justification in granting anything so wideranging.

The Somerset protests are against nuclear power itself but also at the way the company appears to be flaunting democracy and the new planning laws even before it starts building. EDF has permission to spend £100m preparing the site for the two power stations on the basis that they will return many millions tonnes of earth and restore the land to exactly how it was, should a public inspector decline to give them planning permsssion in 2013.

This is clearly impossible, so the EDF must be 100% certain that it will get permission to build. In which case, say the protesters, the whole consultation exercise and planning process is a sham - a situation that looks likely to be subject to further court cases.

Half of all local residents are against the power station but everyone in the area is united in believing that the planning system has been corrupted by cash...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/feb/29/nuclear-power-energy-protest-hinkley