But 拢16bn nuclear project still facing legal challenge from Ireland鈥檚 National Trust
Greenpeace has dropped its legal challenge against EDF鈥檚 plans to build the 拢16bn Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.
In May, the campaign group lodged an application for a judicial review of the government鈥檚 decision to grant the plant planning permission, but this was dropped last week.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Emma Gibson said: 鈥淥ur legal case was based on the fact the government should not have given planning consent for Hinkley C without first having a long-term plan for dealing with the radioactive waste.
鈥淢aterial we鈥檝e seen in the disclosure process suggests that, although it may strain credulity, the government鈥檚 assertion that it will be able to find somewhere to put a waste dump in due course would be accepted by the court.鈥�
The government鈥檚 plans for a long term storage solution for nuclear waste were dealt a blow in January after Cumbria council, the only local authorty that had volunteered to host a storage facility, voted not to proceed to the next stage of the selection process.
Since then the government has been putting together a revised plan to find a site for deep geological storage of nuclear waste.
EDF鈥檚 plans are still subject to a legal challenge from An Taisce, Ireland鈥檚 equivalent of the National Trust, which has argued Irish people should have been consulted on the plans because of the plant鈥檚 proximity to Ireland.
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