Government plans could make South East nuclear hotspot

The Guardian reports that the government is considering building nuclear power stations on the sites of old coal and gas-fired stations in Oxfordshire and the south-east, according to documents released yesterday as part of a consultation forced on it by the courts.

A confidential report, commissioned by the DTI last year from leading energy analysts Jackson Consulting, has recommended a new generation of plants at existing or redundant civil and military nuclear power stations. But it says that many of these will be unavailable for years or will be unsuitable because they have limited connections to the national grid.

Instead, the consultants say that "existing coal and/or gas-fired conventional power stations" should be considered for new nuclear sites. A further option would be to develop stations at "completely new greenfield sites".

Of the 19 existing civil nuclear power station sites, only nine are considered feasible for new reactors, and only four of these are available immediately.

However, the DTI has been advised that the sites of conventional power stations in the Midlands, the south coast near Brighton, and near Bristol could become available. T

The report was submitted to the DTI last year and attempts by Greenpeace to make it public under freedom of information rules were repeatedly blocked.The study was finally disclosed yesterday, when the government published its latest energy white paper.