Bradwell dropped from list of sites for nuclear fusion plant

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) had put Bradwell on a list of possible sites for the UK’s prototype fusion energy plant – STEP.

Conceptual illustration of the planned STEP plant

The UKAEA says the successful site will become a “global hub” for fusion energy and associated industries, and “create thousands of highly skilled jobs during the construction and operation of the plant, while attracting investment that will enable the development of a new UK science and technology centre of excellence”.

Read more: Bradwell fusion power plant is 'fantasy' claim campaigners

The authority has confirmed the village has been dropped from the list.

Campaign group Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) welcomed the decision.

BANNG chairman Prof Andy Blowers said: “Bradwell was always likely to be a non-starter for this nuclear fantasy project.

“The UKAEA has now confirmed BANNG’s view that the site is wholly unsuitable for dangerous nuclear experiments, and especially such far-fetched and probably unrealisable projects like fusion.

“The speculative nomination of Bradwell, by Belport Ltd, agent of the landowner, was pragmatic if unrealistic.

“The presence of the now shut Bradwell A and the possibility of a new nuclear fission power station, Bradwell B, indicate a historic nuclear presence and the prospect of a nuclear future at the site where a fusion project might be seen as complementing fission in a significant coastal nuclear complex.

“It might also seem to realise the Government’s overblown claims in its green paper, Towards Fusion Energy, that fusion technology ‘could change the face of global energy production and provide a genuinely long term solution to climate change’.”

BANNG has argued for 13 years that Bradwell is not a “potentially suitable” site for new nuclear plants.

It also says fusion produces radioactive waste which must be managed for the long term, and claims fusion is still at the “experimental stage” as a “complex technology that carries dangers of radioactive emissions, accidents and proliferation”.

BANNG says the decision to drop Bradwell from the list is a “timely recognition that it should never have got there in the first place”.

Prof Blowers added: “Bradwell was never a serious contender for the fusion project.

“What the decision to drop it shows is that the site is totally unsuitable for nuclear energy of any kind.

“If Bradwell is not suitable for fusion, then it is not suitable for Bradwell B either.

“It may only be a matter of time before the penny drops and this ridiculous project is also withdrawn.”