An overview of the local issues on the Oldbury new nuclear development

Until recently, we had all assumed that the new station would be a like-for-like replacement for the old one, which we’re all used to and which is due to be decommissioned in the next couple of years. It's been very difficult to persuade Horizon to tell us what their plans really are. It turns out that they want to build something about eight times as big as the existing one. This will be so big that it can no longer be cooled using only water from the river – which is why Shepperdine is the only one of the eight sites earmarked for new nuclear development which will need cooling towers.

You may be aware that initial plans were for cooling towers of over 600 feet in height. These would not only be by far the tallest such towers in Britain, but would be only 30 feet shorter than the tallest building in the country at the moment (at Canary Wharf in London). Horizon have said that they may go for so-called "hybrid" cooling towers, which are only 200 feet tall (about the same height as the existing power station), but as these are much more expensive to build and run, and as they draw a significant percentage of the electricity that station generates, we suspect that they may still go for the taller option.

Because of this, the new station will be huge, ugly and intrusive. Sitting between the old power stations at Oldbury and Berkeley, it will be at the centre of
an industrialised five-mile strip of the Eastern shore of the Severn. As well as threatening the sensitive environment of the estuary (which includes
internationally recognised habitats and Sites of Special Scientific Interest), this massive eyesore will intrude on two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (the
Wye Valley and the Cotswolds) as well as the Severn Vale.

We’re gravely concerned about other aspects of the site and its planned development. This is the highest category of flood risk from the river -- so-called Flood Zone 3. We’re also worried about the impact of any flood defences around the station itself, because our village is subject to flooding from the water running
off the hills behind, which drains into the river through a series of ditches.

In addition, in the absence of any national storage facility, all the radioactive wastes generated by the new nuclear power station will be stored on site for up to
160 years. Horizon haven't told us anything to reassure us that they understand the risk or know how to contain it safely. Some communities (e.g. Sellafield, in Cumbria) may yet volunteer to store nuclear waste, but we haven’t done this.

In common with all the other sites, building a new power station of this size will be hugely disruptive and will effectively destroy the communities in proximity to it.

For all these reasons, we believe that the Shepperdine site is entirely unsuitable for a new nuclear power station, particularly of the size that is envisaged. We can understand why it is attractive to a commercial company, mainly because the connection to the national grid is already there. At the same time, we don't believe that Horizon have thought through the costs of this development. These will be much greater than at other sites, because of the need for cooling towers, mitigation of the damage that hot water and radioactive discharges may do in the Severn, and landscaping and other measures to lessen the visual impact on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.