nuclear-news

Times 20th July 2019 Nuclear power plant will suck fish to their deaths, The Times, Ben Webster,, Oceans Correspondent, July 20 2019  It has been described as a giant plughole under the sea, sucking in 130,000 litres of water a second along with vast numbers of fish. The twin inlet tunnels stretching two miles out into the Severn estuary are so big that a
double-decker bus could drive through them.

The system will cool a new
nuclear power station being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset but
conservation groups say it will kill up to 250,000 fish a day and must be
altered or scrapped. They say that EDF, the French state-owned energy
group, has grossly underestimated the system’s impact on marine life in the
estuary, a special conservation area.

A 5mm mesh will be installed to
prevent larger fish being swallowed but the groups, including the Blue
Marine Foundation, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and Somerset Wildlife Trust,
say many fish will be fatally injured when pressed against it. Small fish,
eels and the fry of many species, such as salmon, whiting and cod, will be
sucked through the mesh and into the cooling system.

The groups say it
could damage the population of twaite shad in the UK, a small herring-like
fish that used to spawn in the estuary by the millions but has dwindled to
tens of thousands.

EDF says the system will kill about 650,000 fish a year.
It has asked to vary its original permits and planning permission for the
power station to allow it to remove an “acoustic fish deterrent” from the
cooling system. It argues that, even without it, the impact of the system
on fish populations will still be “negligible”. EDF says fish will be
adequately protected by other measures, one which will slow the water
entering the system and another which will return to the sea the fish
sucked in.

Conservation groups argue that scientific analysis they obtained
of the cooling system shows far greater harm to marine life. This analysis
is partly based on measurements of fish swallowed by the cooling system of
Hinkley Point B, a nearby nuclear power station which consumes a quarter of
the sea water that will be extracted to cool Hinkley C.

They want the
government to reject EDF’s application and, if the company cannot mitigate
the damage, force it to use other ways to cool the station, such as cooling
towers or ponds.

James Robinson, of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, said:
“The authorities must decide if it’s worth building a giant plughole to
suck millions of sea animals to their deaths, in one of our most important
protected marine areas, in order to produce electricity.” Charles Clover,
director of Blue Marine Foundation, said the groups would also challenge
plans by EDF for a similar system at its proposed new nuclear power station
at Sizewell in Suffolk.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e0c7e83e-aa68-11e9-89e4-5e7e89de8df9