SANEs view of the Horizon letter to local householders

The paragraph below is from the Horizon letter to residents of Shepperdine, Oldbury, Oldbury Naite and Nupdown:-

"As our studies continue, we will now treat the hybrid as our preferred option. However, we will still include consideration of the natural draught cooling tower within the overall suite of cooling options when we come to carry out our formal pre-application consultation activity"

Does this indicate that if the EA do not accept the Horizon proposals they will opt for natural draught cooling towers?....Could be !!!


Our community is also concerned about :-

1. Even with the fan assisted hybrid towers the project is still massive in terms of scale and will industrialise a huge section of the banks of the River Severn, 4 times the length of the existing site.

2. The fan assisted towers are noisy and will have an unacceptable impact on the many residents living close to the site.

3.. The impact of the steam plumes from these towers, has yet to be assessed, but we know that in other countries this can create a changes in climatic conditions in areas down wind of the towers depositing contaminated drizzle/rain on the communities in these locations and this is totally unacceptable to the local residents affected.

4. The site is within a level 3 flood zone which is the highest level risk, which is a ridiculous location for such a nuclear power station. The existing power station has been cut off by floods in the past and this is a very serious issue. The flood defence measures necessary to protect this site will also have a major impact on the area including raising the site and access road to the site above the flood level. This will also create a serious risk of collateral flooding - from flood defences preventing effective drainage of surface water further inland - thus increasing flood risks to surrounding areas. This matter has not even been considered yet!

5. The need to store highly toxic waste on site for 150 years plus, made even more ridiculous given that the site is in a level 3 flood zone. The governments plans for a national geological disposal facility for this waste are a long way off reality. They have yet to identify a suitable site within a volunteer community and, if even if they do manage to find a community to confirm agreement to host this, it will take decades of testing to confirm whether or not such a site is geologically suitable. If (and its a bif if) they eventually manage to confirm such a site is suitable it will then take decades to build. In the meantime our community is expected to host the storage of this highly toxic material for an indefinate period. Add to this the fact that it is on the flood plain of the River Severn and this is a totally absurd proposal!

6. The impact on the community during construction will destroy this beautiful area for ever. The damage done by traffic, road widening, temporary accomodation for 5,000 largely migrant workers and so on can not be over stated. South Gloucestershire Council have estimated that the material needed to raise the site alone will require 1500 HGV movements per day for 18 months!

7. The site is far too close to some significant populations including the town of Thornbury (less than 5 miles and a population of circa 12,500), the city of Bristol (less than 10 miles with a population of circa 450,000) and the towns of Chepstow and Lydney directly accross the river! DECC have in their own siting documents suggested that these power stations must not be located close to large populations for safety reasons and we are therefore at a loss to understand why anyone considers this site as suitable.

8. It is illogical to consider detailed plans for Shepperdine without knowing whether or not a Severn Barrage will go ahead or the details/location of such a barrage. To do so could very well pre-determine the outcome of this hugely important renewable scheme and is definitely not in the long term interests of this country. Now that it would appear that the larger Barrage has been ruled out this makes the smaller options more likely which are closer to the proposed new site at Shepperdine, nr Oldbury.