Councillor urges nuclear firms to come clean over Oldbury power station plans

Nuclear companies are being asked to come clean over their plans for the future of Oldbury power station.

German-owned E.ON has revealed an interest in building a power plant at the Oldbury site near Thornbury – four months after the American-Japanese consortium of Toshiba-Westinghouse announced it was developing its own scheme.

The area's councillor, Matthew Riddle, believes the companies have a duty to inform local people about their plans.

He has called a public meeting in Oldbury-on-Severn next month so people can hear the proposals.

Mr Riddle, who is also the prospective Conservative MP for the new Thornbury and Yate constituency, said: "I've lived near to the power station for most of the years it has been in operation.

"There are many residents who believe that on balance it has been a good neighbour.

"The power station sustains many high tech jobs, provides the country with electricity in a safe, low-carbon way and has funded a great deal of community projects.

"But companies like E.ON must not continue sneaking around and allowing local people to learn about their plans for Oldbury through the drip-drip of information contained in the papers.

"This isn't going to endear local people to whatever they're planning."

As reported in the Bristol Evening Post last week, E.ON has drawn up plans for a £4 billion nuclear plant on the River Severn near the power station.

E.ON insisted its interest in Oldbury was only preliminary. It wants to build two nuclear stations in Britain and said Oldbury was just one site it was investigating.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the government body that runs the clean-up of decommissioned nuclear stations, has announced plans to sell land at three locations for building new reactors, including Oldbury.

In May, American company Energy Solutions revealed it was developing plans for the Oldbury site with the Toshiba-Westinghouse consortium, which would provide the nuclear technology.

But any plan for a new station will be delayed if the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) allows Oldbury to put off its own closure.

Oldbury has generated power since 1968 and was due to stop at the end of this year, but Magnox Electric, which manages day-to-day operations for the NDA, wants to carry on until about 2010.

Spokeswoman Saranne Postans said: "We are planning to extend generation but need the NII to be satisfied that it is OK to do that.

"We had a defuelling timescale and were going to close on December 31 to enable us to take fuel out of the reactors and send it to Sellafield. That now won't happen until 2011, allowing Oldbury to stay in use for a couple of years."

A date and venue for Mr Riddle's meeting will be announced soon.