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Has a decision already been made?

ANALYSIS - Mike Davis


Just like the fact that donations to politicians haven't gone away with a change of government, neither has the prospect of a GDF, either at Theddlethorpe (less than 25 miles from Patrington), or in Cumbria.


Three articles, published within a days of each other at the end of September, show that NWS is continuing the charm offensive that started with Andrew Bowie's series of articles in the Daily Telegraph in May this year.


One was in The Engineer by Martin Walsh, Head of Engineering at NWS entitled Nuclear GDF is vital for UK’s future; where he was outlining the challenges and opportunities for the construction industries. Importantly after stating that the GDF will be located 200-1000 metres below ground or the seabed, it also mentions the requirement for protection from future ice ages. Which is good because the last ice age sculpted the shape of the 1084 metre-high mount Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa). Which is formed of a lot harder rock than the Mercian Mudstone Group that is NWS' favoured medium for a GDF, just off-shore from Theddlethorpe and South Holderness (it is the same formation).


The other two are 'Partner Content' i.e. sponsored, on the PoliticsHome website, which describes itself as ‘Parliament’s in-house magazine’.


In the first, Dr Samantha Harris, Director of Shareholder and Stakeholder Relations at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (of which NWS is a part) wrote about The power of leveraging strategic partnerships to deliver value, emphasising the £4 billion budget of the NDA was not just about 'cleaning up the legacy of the past' but supporting supply chains and helping to achieve net zero targets.


In the second, Corhyn Parr, CEO of NWS, entitled How we’re making progress towards building a geological disposal facility for nuclear waste in the UK described why NWS believes the UK needs a GDF, and emphaised the potenial jobs and monies for local communities (although the 4,000 potential jobs is now spread over the first 25 years of the project).


Interestingly, the artist’s illustration that accompanies this article, and which does not appear on any of the three Official GDF partnership websites, shows a GDF surface facility, with sand dunes between it and the sea. A brief check of Google earth showed similarities to a couple of potential locations along the Cumbrian coast in Mid and South Copeland. However it could quite easily be a sunny day in Theddlethorpe with a smattering of cloud.


(c) NWS/PoliticsHome

(c) Google

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