SAVE SUFFOLK'S WILDLIFE FROM EDF's SIZEWELL C!

Our beautiful countryside under threat

We're a local group of Friends of the Earth, who care passionately about our beautiful, tranquil Suffolk countryside and its rare wildlife.  Some of the species are already at risk and on the Red Data Book list.  Yet EDF Energy wants to build a nuclear power station here, known as Sizewell C, with access road right across Sizewell Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  

Here there are protected animals, such as otter and water vole, beautiful butterflies, including White Admiral and Grayling, rare dragonflies like the Norfolk Hawker, and where scarce plants grow such as the lovely Marsh-orchids.  

Directly adjacent is Minsmere, the famous RSPB bird reserve.  In spring you might hear a bittern booming.

The road would lead to the vast platform, where there would be two European Pressurised Nuclear Reactors, in themselves potentially hugely dangerous.  Right next to them is a store for high-level nuclear waste - and all of this in Suffolk's Heritage Coast and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  There could hardly be a worse place for it!

To build the platform EDF Energy would have to drill down 45 metres through the rare fen meadow, taking even more of the precious SSSI.  Peat is a non-renewable resource, having slowly developed over at least 6,000 years.  When disturbed it releases greenhouse gases.  This valuable habitat cannot be replaced and would be lost for ever, along with its highly specialised plants and animals.

A nightmare building site

Just imagine - the small sounds of birdsong would be replaced by the roar of chainsaws cutting down many hectares of woodland, clouds of dust rising from the excavations and land clearance, the stench of diesel fumes from bulldozers, and permanent 24-hour artificial lighting not just blocking out the beauty of the night sky, but causing severe disorientation to bats, moths and other night-time inhabitants.  

The construction works would take at least 12 years, by which time the wildlife would have either died or been frightened away.

We love this place.  The very thought of its ruination is unbearable.  Please help us to save it!

Expert witnesses required!

We need scientific evidence to prove that, during the 12 years of construction, the damage to protected species would be extensive and that the small amount of mitigation offered by EDF Energy is grossly inadequate.  We urgently need funds to pay scientists to write expert reports for us and to speak for us in the infrastructure planning examination.  This will determine whether or not Sizewell C should go ahead.

Most particularly we need to be able to pay an expert eco-hydrologist, who would assess the changes to water levels in the surrounding marshes due to the construction works, which in turn would change the chemistry of the water.  This would mean that many of the rare and sensitive species, such as the dragonflies, moths, plants and birds, would no longer be able to thrive here.

We have to convince the Infrastructure Planning Inspectorate that this is totally the wrong place for another nuclear power station.  The damage to our highly sensitive landscapes would be so appalling that it should not go ahead.  Scientific expertise is vital to enable us to counteract EDF's arguments successfully - but it's very expensive!

At the entrance to the SSSI the sign on the gate says 'NO DOGS'.  Yet EDF Energy thinks it's OK to build two vast nuclear reactors here!  

Funding urgently needed!

The government inspectors will begin to examine EDF Energy's application shortly, so we need to brief our scientists now as a matter of real urgency.

Can you help us to save Suffolk's wildlife from this abominable development?  Any contributions, of whatever size, will be hugely appreciated.  To give everyone a chance to donate, we've extended the end date and are allowing the fund to run on for a while. Thank you so much!