nuclear-news

EDF unveils fresh details on new fish deterrent technology to be used at Hinkley Point C

 An alternative acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) system is being proposed for
the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station near Burnham-On-Sea to end a
bitter row over some of the site’s environmental measures.

The move sees EDF, which owns the nuclear power site, drop the controversial idea to
create new salt marshes along the Severn Estuary rather than fit AFDs to
the station’s water intake turbines. The company had been applying to the
Environment Agency for permission to not fit AFDs due to the high cost and
the danger for divers involved in fitting them in the fast-flowing tides
and poor visibility of the Bristol Channel.

Now, Hinkley C stakeholder relations head Andrew Cockcroft has said an innovative new form of AFD could be used. Mr Cockcroft said it was EDF’s preferred solution to the
issue of deterring fish from swimming too close to the Hinkley intakes and
being sucked in. He told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The technology, pioneered
in the South West, is proven and deployed internationally.” “We are now
working with experts to provide the scientific data to underpin the case
for using it at Hinkley Point C.”

“We have received positive feedback
from environmental groups and this option is now our preferred solution
rather pursuing salt marsh creation.” Andrew Cockcroft adds that all salt
marsh design and development would be paused while work continues in 2025
to prove the effectiveness of the new AFD system. The new AFDs are already
used in fishing fleets around the world, with the technology using
electronic transducers to target specific fish species with high-frequency
sound.

 Burnham-on-Sea.com 9th March 2025, https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/edf-unveils-fresh-details-on-new-fish-deterrent-technology-to-be-used-at-hinkley-point-c/

March 13, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Radioactive pollution is increasing at Britain’s nuclear bases

7 Mar 25 https://cnduk.org/radioactive-pollution-is-increasing-at-britains-nuclear-bases/

Radioactive air emissions have been increasing year-on-year at Coulport one of Britain’s nuclear submarine bases in Scotland. This development is of some concern as it would lead to increased health risks wherever the emissions were inhaled. 

Investigations by The Ferret and The National newspaper found that emissions of radioactive tritiated water vapour had doubled at the Royal Navy’s nuclear weapons storage depot at Coulport on Loch Long between 2018 and 2023. According to the Scottish Pollution Release Inventory, tritiated water vapour emissions at Coulport were 1.7 billion becquerels (units of radioactivity) in 2018, rising steadily to 4.2 billion units in 2023. Tritiated water vapour is  harmful when inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin as its radiation causes cancer and cardiovascular diseases including strokes.

The investigation also found that eight miles from Coulport at Faslane, where Britain’s nuclear submarines are based, tritiated water containing over 50 billion units of radioactivity had been dumped into the Gareloch. The level of dumping peaked in 2020, when 16.6 billion units were discharged. 

The Ferret noted that in 2019,  the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) “changed the rules to allow certain tritium-contaminated effluents from nuclear submarines at Faslane to be discharged into the Gareloch.” Both SEPA and the MoD claim these emissions are within official safety limits.

However Dr Ian Fairlie, CND’s science advisor, states that these limits are unreliable, as official estimated doses from tritium contain “large uncertainties.”

CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said: 

“From faulty nuclear-armed subs on dangerously extended patrols to crumbling nuclear waste sites, Britain’s nuclear industry is putting us all at great risk. Instead of enforcing the highest levels of environmental standards, the government is just redefining what ‘acceptable risk’ means. All so it can allow the dumping of radioactive water, putting local people at greater risk of cancer. This is beyond reckless. It’s time to scrap Trident and its replacement, and decommission the nuclear industry.”

March 10, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

‘Fish disco’ plan revived to protect salmon from Hinkley Point C.

Energy company EDF has proposed an acoustic fish deterrent to stop fish in
the Severn Estuary being sucked into the nuclear power station. EDF
previously ditched plans for an acoustic fish deterrent, a device designed
to keep Atlantic salmon, eel and other species away from a cooling water
intake pipe for Hinkley Point C in Somerset, due to fears that maintaining
it for 60 years would put divers at risk.

The former minister Michael Gove
mockingly called the measure, a condition of the plant’s planning
permission, a “fish disco”. Now it’s returning, but as a mobile
disco. Instead of the originally proposed 280 loudspeakers permanently
attached to concrete structures, ceramic transducers will be installed that
can be lifted up and down in lobster pot-style containers, negating the
need for divers.

The devices will produce a sound which can be tuned to
precise frequencies to deter specific species. Engineers will be able to
maintain them by raising them to the water’s surface. However, it also
means the axe for EDF’s interim plan to build salt marshes along the
River Severn as a compensatory measure. Mark Lloyd, the CEO of The Rivers
Trust charity, welcomed the firm’s about-turn to honour its commitment on
fish protections. But he said the company should still create salt marsh
habitat or passages to help salmon, as some will still be sucked to their
death despite the deterrent.

 Times 5th March 2025
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/fish-disco-plan-edf-hinkley-point-c-j303w9rdk

March 9, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

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.

March 8, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

EDF considers plans to revive ‘fish disco’ at Hinkley Point plant.

Move marks latest step in long-running debate over project’s wildlife
protection measures. EDF is considering reviving plans to install a
so-called fish disco in the Bristol Channel to ward off marine life
approaching its nuclear plant Hinkley Point C.

The French state-owned
company has written to communities around the project, being built in
Somerset, saying new technology could make its planned “acoustic
deterrent” system “safe and effective”. The move marks the latest
step in a long-running saga over the plant’s fish protection measures,
which has become emblematic of a wider national debate between development
and environmental protection measures.

EDF proposed an “acoustic
deterrent” as part of its original plans for the 3.2-gigawatt power
station. The system was devised to protect fish at risk of being sucked
into the plant’s machinery as it draws in water for cooling. But the
company has for several years been trying to ditch the proposal, arguing it
would endanger divers having to install and maintain the system, and may
not be effective.

It proposed to instead develop salt marshes to shelter
shoals. In their letter to local communities, sent last week and seen by
the FT, Andrew Cockcroft, head of stakeholder relations at Hinkley Point C,
said it had “recently become aware” of innovation that meant a new type
of deterrent could be installed. “The technology, pioneered in the
south-west, is proven and deployed internationally [ . . . ] We are
now working with experts to provide the scientific data to underpin the
case for using it at Hinkley Point C,” he said. EDF will “pause all
design and development work on salt marsh creation” in the meantime, he
added.

 FT 4th March 2025. https://www.ft.com/content/b282d3f9-22f3-4075-9fce-6458a6c053af

March 6, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

‘Fish disco’ row risks fresh delays to Hinkley Point nuclear plant

EDF has been urged by campaigners to stick with plans to install underwater
loudspeakers to deter fish in the Bristol Channel, as the energy company
grapples with delays to construction of its Hinkley Point C nuclear
reactor.

The row over the “fish disco” deterrent, as it is known in
Whitehall circles, marks the latest salvo in the UK’s long-running battle
to balance growth with environmental protections. Mark Lloyd, chief
executive of The Rivers Trust charity, said France’s state-owned energy
company should keep its commitment to the acoustic fish deterrent, as part
of its Hinkley Point C project.

His comments follow warnings that wrangling
over fish protection risks further delaying completion of the Somerset
power plant, which is already several years behind schedule and billions of
pounds over budget. Plans for the deterrent system involve 288 underwater
speakers that would produce underwater noise louder than a jumbo jet all
day, every day for six decades, according to EDF.

Despite previously
agreeing to build an “acoustic fish deterrent”, EDF is now trying to
scrap those plans, saying they would endanger divers, and is instead
proposing salt marshes to shelter fish. But Lloyd argued that, unless the
acoustic deterrent was installed, “there are likely to be local
extinctions and a very significant impact on marine species throughout the
South West and the Irish Sea”. EDF rejects this characterisation,
pointing out that regulators estimate the amount of fish that will be
harmed without the deterrent is 44 tonnes per year, equivalent to an annual
catch of one small fishing vessel.

FT 26th Feb 2025,
https://www.ft.com/content/28c4cade-d477-4df5-a4b4-cf5ea8dfac95

March 1, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

‘Nothing prepared us for Sizewell C devastation’

Richard Daniel, Environment reporter, BBC East of England, 10 Feb 25

Groundwork for a new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast is well under way, but the funding needed to build it has still not been agreed.

Sizewell C said it was confident a final investment decision on the station would be made this summer.

Meanwhile, the cost of its sister project, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, has risen to as high as £46bn.

Opponents have likened Sizewell C to the beleaguered HS2 rail project and said the government should pull out before it is too late.

So what is the state of play?

In east Suffolk, signs of development are hard to miss.

Thousands of trees have been felled, and a huge swathe of land stretching from the outskirts of Leiston to the coast have been cleared for a new construction compound and access road to the Sizewell C site.

Elsewhere, land is being dug up for a new link road off the A12, a new bypass around the villages of Stratford St Andrew and Farnham, and two park-and-ride sites at Wickham Market and Darsham.

The groundwork started a year ago.

The twin reactors would generate 3.2 GW of electricity, sufficient to power six million homes.

So far the UK government, which has an 85% stake in the project, has pledged £5.5bn towards development work.

Last month, EDF denied reports that the total cost of the project had risen to over £40bn, up from an estimated £20bn in 2018.

It is seeking investors and the government said a final investment decision would be made in June.

‘It’s all gone’

David Grant’s farm at Middleton, near Leiston, has been cut in two by the new Sizewell link road and an access road to the B1122.

He said he had lost 38 acres (15 hectares) of arable land.

Opponents of Sizewell C still argue the project should be scrapped before it is too late.

Alison Downes, from Stop Sizewell C, said: “The taxpayer is being forced to pay for what is basically a bet that this project is a good idea and should go ahead.

“The possibility that Sizewell C could go ahead at whatever price is just completely inconceivable.

“Every penny they spend on Sizewell C is a penny lost to cheaper, quicker renewable energy projects that could get us to net zero more quickly and address our climate crisis.”

“Nothing prepared us for the devastation caused,” he said.

“It’s all gone, dug out with machines completely ruthlessly and without any sympathy.

“I think this is HS2, but bigger, frankly.

“I’ve got friends who were involved in the HS2 cancellation and they haven’t even been able to repurchase their land. Luckily we have the option to repurchase if this doesn’t go ahead.”

‘Every penny they spend is a penny lost’

Opponents of Sizewell C still argue the project should be scrapped before it is too late.

Alison Downes, from Stop Sizewell C, said: “The taxpayer is being forced to pay for what is basically a bet that this project is a good idea and should go ahead.

“The possibility that Sizewell C could go ahead at whatever price is just completely inconceivable.

“Every penny they spend on Sizewell C is a penny lost to cheaper, quicker renewable energy projects that could get us to net zero more quickly and address our climate crisis.”…………………. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9qwygd5j4o

February 14, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Requiem for the trees

 Earlier this week, Sizewell C admitted to a Community Forum that they have
felled a staggering 21,675 trees! The photo above shows local resident
David Grant seated on the remains of a 300 year-old oak tree on the
boundary between his land and what was compulsorily purchased for the
Sizewell Link Road. He was being interviewed by BBC Look East, for
broadcast next Tuesday (11th, 6.30pm) about the devastation. But we are
still not being told who will pay for Sizewell C and what it will cost.

 Stop Sizewell C 7th Feb 2025 https://mailchi.mp/stopsizewellc/en7?e=326ee81c22

February 10, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point C owner warns fish protection row may further delay nuclear plant.

The prospect of a fresh delay to the plant, which is expected to generate about 7% of the UK’s electricity in the 2030s, comes amid a deepening row between green groups and the government over the chancellor, Rachel Reeves’s plan to prioritise economic growth over other considerations, including the environment and net zero.

Solution to stop River Severn fish being sucked into cooling systems taking too long to resolve, EDF says

Jillian Ambrose, Guardian 30th Jan 2025

The owner of Hinkley Point C in Somerset has warned that the much-delayed construction of Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation could face further hold-ups because of a row over its impact on local fish.

The nuclear developer, EDF Energy, warned that the “lengthy process” to agree to a solution with local communities to protect fish in the River Severn had “the potential to delay the operation of the power station”.

As a result, the developer, which is owned by the French state, raised the threat of further delays to Hinkley Point – a project already running years late and billions of pounds over budget.

EDF said last year that Hinkley could be delayed to as late as 2031 and cost up to £35bn, in 2015 money. The actual cost including inflation would be far higher. EDF declined to say how long any new delay could be.

The prospect of a fresh delay to the plant, which is expected to generate about 7% of the UK’s electricity in the 2030s, comes amid a deepening row between green groups and the government over the chancellor, Rachel Reeves’s plan to prioritise economic growth over other considerations, including the environment and net zero.

EDF last week welcomed the government’s new reforms to “stop blockers getting in the way” of new infrastructure projects, including nuclear power plants. It called for the government to establish a framework to manage environmental concerns “in a more proportionate” manner.

The developer has pressured the government to loosen environmental rules while at loggerheads with local communities over its complex plans to protect local fish populations which are at risk of being sucked up into the nuclear power plant’s cooling systems.

The company had planned to install an “acoustic fish deterrent” to keep fish away from the reactor’s water intake system, which is nearly two miles offshore.

The project, which was reportedly informally dubbed “the fish disco” among former ministers, would require almost 300 underwater speakers to boom noise louder than a jumbo jet 24 hours a day for 60 years.

But the plan was later scrapped by EDF over concerns for the safety of divers who would need to maintain the speakers in dangerous conditions. There are also questions over its effectiveness.

Without the deterrent an estimated 18 to 46 tonnes of fish could be killed every year, according to estimates provided by EDF.

The company dismayed local farmers and landowners last year by suggesting plans to turn 340 hectares (840 acres) of land along the River Severn into a salt marsh to compensate for the number of fish forecast to be killed by the reactor every year.

After a growing outcry, it said earlier this month it would delay the formal consultation on its salt marsh plan, which it says would provide safe habitats for fish and animals, from the end of this month until later this year.

Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust, said any fish deterrent was vital. “The water intakes will suck in an Olympic swimming pool’s worth of water every 12 seconds, more than the normal flow of all the rivers flowing into the Severn estuary, and without a deterrent mechanism will cause a vast slaughter of millions of fish every year for the next 60 years.

“This will cause the potential extinction of populations of rare and endangered species … As the Severn estuary is a vital fish nursery for the whole region, the strategic and economic impacts for marine fisheries throughout the Irish Sea will be devastating.”……………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/30/hinkley-point-c-owner-warns-fish-row-may-further-delay-nuclear-plant

February 1, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Hinkley Point C: EDF says fish issue could delay new plant operation

By Seth Dellow, Digital Reporter, Bridgwater Mercury 24th Jan 2025

EDF has stated that a “lengthy process” to identify acceptable compensation for the loss of fish stemming from Hinkley Point C could have “the potential to delay the operation of the power station.” 

The French energy giant behind the nuclear project has welcomed government plans to stop delaying major infrastructure projects over ‘excessive’ environmental obligations.

The government is proposing to reduce the number of legal challenges a group can make in court, from three to just one attempt……………………………………………………….

EDF has warned that a “current lengthy process to identify and implement acceptable compensation for a small remaining assessed impact on fish has the potential to delay the operation of the power station.”

It follows the recent delay of a formal consultation over the proposed location of a new salt marsh, which would act as an environmental mitigation for the harm the project would bring to 44 tonnes of fish.

According to EDF, creating a salt marsh “is the only option currently likely to be accepted as a mitigation.” But local residents along the Severn, including landowners and farmers, have previously expressed their opposition to the plans. The initial proposal to create a saltmarsh at Pawlett Harms was opposed in Parliament, with Bridgwater’s MP Sir Ashley Fox branding the idea as a “disaster.” https://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/24878911.hinkley-point-c-edf-says-fish-issue-delay-new-plant-operation/

January 26, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK | Leave a comment