Application by NNB Generation Co (EDF) to the Environment Agency for permits to discharge radioactive substances from the proposed Hinkley Point C power station

I object to the above permit application.

NNB GenCo plans to discharge radioactive substances into the sea and air. We believe that no dose of radiation is safe. Radiation damage is cumulative. Each dose received adds to the risk of developing cancer, or mutating genes in the reproductive cells.

In 2008, a major German study found large increases in infant cancers near all German nuclear power stations. This so-called KiKK study (Childhood cancers in the vicinity of nuclear power stations) reported a 2.2-fold increase in leukaemia risks and a 1.6-fold increase in embryonal cancer risks among children under five living within five kilometers of all German nuclear power stations.

A 2007 study by researchers at the University of South Carolina analysing 17 research papers covering 136 nuclear sites in the UK, Canada, France, USA, Germany, Japan and Spain, also "show[ed] an increase in childhood leukaemia near nuclear facilities". They found that death rates for children up to the age of nine were elevated by between five and 24%, depending on their proximity to nuclear facilities, and by two to 18% in children and young people up to the age of 25. Incidence rates were increased by 14 to 21% in zero to nine-year-olds and seven to ten percent in zero to 25-year-olds.

A French survey from 2008 of 26 multi-site studies of childhood cancers near nuclear facilities came to a similar conclusion.

A number of studies have shown a higher incidence than expected of various cancers in Burnham-on-Sea, the town immediately downwind from Hinkley Point.

We believe that these studies show that the discharges of radioactive substances that NNB GenCo is applying for would increase the risk of cancer in the proximity, and would therefore fail to protect people and the environment.

Yours,

Page Updated 04-Oct-2011