Villagers packed a public meeting to protest EDF's plans to flood land to compensate for killing fish at Hinkley PointIt sounds grisly, but for the engineers on the Somerset coast building Britain’s first nuclear power station in a generation, it’s an urgent question.
But Andrew Cockroft, from Hinkley Point C, insisted there will be a “very very small impact on fish populations”.At the heart of this row is a simple truth of physics - nuclear power plants, by design, get hot.At Hinkley Point in Somerset, they’re about to install the nuclear reactor which will create all the heat in the first place. It’s still at least seven years before it will be switched on.
The superheated steam that drives the turbines will pass along pipes surrounded by cold seawater, to cool it down.The River Severn at Arlingham, Gloucestershire, where EDF are considering creating a new 'saltmarsh' to breed fish.The Bristol Channel is home to salmon, eels, herring, sprats, and dozens of protected marine species.Can they stop the fish?
He said: “Saltmarsh reduces flooding. It provides shelter and breeding grounds for fish, it’s an amazing place for birds, and can be great for people too.”More than 100 people queued to get into the village hall for a public meeting on EDF's plans for a new saltmarsh near ArlinghamProposals to breach the banks to create the new marshland have gone down very badly.
Another man told EDF representatives: "Arlingham is a unique part of the country, and I see no reason for you ruining that just to solve your problem with dead fish”.They had to find somewhere to create the new 340 hectares of saltmarsh, and Arlingham was one of four sites that fit the bill, they said.The original plan for Hinkley Point approved by the government included a so-called 'Acoustic Fish Deterrent'.EDF says it no longer thinks that will work. Some fish cannot hear.
“Imagine a windfarm was killing 184 million birds a year, that would be a wholly unacceptable situation. So why is it ok to kill all these fish?” he said., and removed the requirement to install an acoustic deterrent from Hinkley’s licence to build.PA Media