Wirral site earmarked for possible new nuclear power station

Jan 11 2008 EXCLUSIVE by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

A SITE in Wirral will be inspected in the hunt for locations for new nuclear power stations, after the Government backed the idea in principle yesterday.

The former Capenhurst Diffusion plant, on the Wirral border, emerged as an outside bet, as ministers triggered a furious row by describing the case for new plants as "compelling".

The Government hopes energy companies will build around 10 power stations, most probably on the sites of some of Britain's existing 19 nuclear reactors.

But a study by government consultants, released last year, also identified five other nuclear sites – including Capenhurst – as locations "available in principle".

It means inspectors, who will carry out "strategic siting assessments" next year, before drawing up a shortlist, are almost certain to visit south Wirral.

Significantly, Business Secretary John Hutton, speaking in the Commons yesterday, said new power stations would be built close to "existing nuclear facilities" – not existing plants.

Any new power stations will be bitterly fought by environment-alists, who believe nuclear power is expensive, dirty and dangerous.

Controversially, the Govern-ment has already signalled that an unelected “Infrastructure Plann-ing Commission” – rather than a planning inquiry – will decide any proposal.

Ministers are desperate to avoid the delays that dogged the build-ing of Britain's last nuclear plant, Sizewell B, in Suffolk. The inquiry took six years and cost £30m.

In the Commons, former Tory environment minister John Gummer, whose constituency contains Sizewell, condemned the idea of a "quango" silencing local people.

The Capenhurst site – a facility where uranium ore was turned into enriched materials used in nuclear fuel – closed in 1982 when decommissioning began.

It is now used for storing nu-clear materials, such as depleted uranium from reprocessing of Magnox fuel at Sellafield, and other materials from the enrichment plant at Capenhurst.

According to the British Nu-clear Group, the strategy is that Capenhurst will remain a storage site for these materials until 2120.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Hutton said he expected "several" new nuclear plants to be up and running by 2020, because they could be fast-tracked through planning.

Four sites in the South – Hinkley Point in Somerset, Sizewell, Bradwell in Essex and Dungeness in Kent – are considered the most likely first candidates.

Mr Hutton told MPs that new nuclear plants were a "safe and secure" way of producing energy, while producing little carbon blamed for global warming.

He said: "Set against the challenges of climate change and security of supply, the evidence in support of new nuclear power stations is compelling."

The Tories were largely supportive, but the Liberal Democrats said the Government should concentrate on renewable energy sources, instead of the nuclear "white elephant".

Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth's director, said: "New nuclear reactors are not the answer to UK energy problems and will do little to tackle climate change."

Mr Hutton was later forced to admit that no nuclear plants had been built anywhere in the world without public subsidy.