UK may build 11 nuclear plants

The UK government’s plan to press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations is “misguided”, an Irish environmental campaign group said today.

Friends of the Earth Director Oisín Coghlan said nuclear power is not the solution and “offers too little, too late, at too high a price and too high a risk.”

Under the plan 11 potential sites, including three in Cumbria and one in Anglesea, have been earmarked by companies interested in building the stations.

Britain’s department of energy and climate change said the sites could be operational by 2025 and has now invited members of the public to air their views during a month-long consultation period.

The process called the Strategic Siting Assessment does not guarantee all 11 sites will be built and a further shortlist will be published in 2010.

On its website the department said the government “would take active steps to facilitate the construction of new nuclear power stations”.

The list of potential locations is:

Wylfa Peninsula in Anglesey

Sellafield in Cumbria

Braystones in Cumbria

Kirksanton in Cumbria

Hartlepool in Cleveland

Heysham in Lancashire

Dungeness in Kent

Oldbury in Gloucestershire

Hinkley Point in Somerset

Bradwell in Essex

Sizewell in Suffolk

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said the plan “is another important step towards a new generation of nuclear power stations.”

He said: “Nuclear power is part of the low carbon future for Britain. It also has the potential to offer thousands of jobs to the UK and multi-million pound opportunities to British businesses."

However, Mr Coghlan disagreed. “Even doubling the UK's nuclear plant would only reduce carbon emissions by less than 10 per cent," he said. "Nobody in Ireland trusts the UK government to handle the plants and the waste responsibly."

Irish CND chairman, Dr David Hutchinson Edgar also criticised the plan and said the new sites increase the risk of a terrorist attack on a nuclear installation.

He said: “In the event of either an accident at a nuclear site, or a deliberate terrorist attack, Ireland, and our coastal waters, could not escape the impact of the fallout.

"Billions invested in prolonging the use of nuclear power could well yield better long-term results through investment in genuinely sustainable and renewable energy sources, such as wind, wave, hydro and biomass."

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said the Government is "engaging" with the UK authorities on the issue "as part of the broader dialogue on nuclear safety and radiological protection issues in general."

He said: “In this context, the Government has recently participated in consultations by the UK authorities on the siting of new nuclear power stations in the UK and related issues, and will continue to do so.

“While it is the right of countries to decide their own energy mix, we insist that the highest safety standards are met. In our engagement with the UK authorities on this issue, we will continue to emphasise nuclear safety and environmental protection.”