Has common sense finally prevailed at Hinkley Point C?

NFLA 5th March 2025 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/has-common-sense-finally-prevailed-at-hinkley-point-c/

In what appears to be a welcome change of heart, EDF Energy has just announced that at Hinkley Point C it will pause its unpopular saltmarsh plan and will instead pursue the possibility of installing a new version of an Acoustic Fish Deterrent.

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have been consistent in its support for the demand made by our friends at Stop Hinkley that the French company honour the obligation placed upon it to install such a device to prevent millions of fish being sucked to their death into the huge intake pipes, each the size of six double decker buses.

The new station will suck in the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools of cooling water per minute from the Severn Estuary, and with it the fish. The estuary is one of the UK’s most highly designated nature conservation sites.

A Public Inquiry and the Secretary of State upheld the importance of the AFD, and scientists and experts in the field are convinced that it remains necessary and practical.

Without the AFD, EDF have estimated that almost 3 million fish will die annually, while other studies put the number of fish lost at up to 182 million per year.

EDF Energy has previously been wholly resistant to installing an AFD citing the supposed threat by its operation to divers, but, in its announcement, the company has described its recent discovery of ‘a new type of acoustic fish deterrent system’. This provides an ‘innovative solution’ and can installed in a way that is ‘safe and effective’.

EDF Energy also says that ‘we are pausing all design and development work on saltmarsh creation’, which will come as a considerable relief to local people, including Lily Hewlett who wrote recently to the company with a plea to refrain from taking, and flooding, 340 acres of the farming family’s grazing land.

Ten-year-old Lily made plain what she thought of the proposed action: ‘You would not just be taking over our land, but you will be hurting nature, and you can’t just use other people’s land for the mistake that you have done. You need to stop it; it is cruel and just because you have lots of money does not mean you can do what you like.’

Who knows maybe this letter touched a heartstring amongst one of the big-wigs in the Hinkley Point C senior management team, but, whatever the catalyst, if this is indeed a genuine attempt by EDF Energy at seeking to establish a new Entente Cordiale with campaigners and the local community then the Nuclear Free Local Authorities welcome it.

For our part we shall suspect disbelief and keep a watching brief. Let’s see what happens.