Severn Barrage or Power Station

By AudreyGreen | Friday, February 26, 2010, 16:28

At the meeting about the proposed new power station at Oldbury our Mayor, Phyllida Parsloe asked whether the projects to build a Severn Barrage and the power station were linked, but the panel could not answer.

They are linked by cost and output. The barrage was estimated some years ago to cost 20 000 M£ and to produce electricity in pulses for 3 hours on each ebb tide, a total of 17 billion units per year

The proposed 3.3Gw nuclear station, at the performance of similar stations around the world, would produce 23 billion units per year for a cost of

7 000 M£. A little bit more electricity at a third of the cost.

If you then throw into the scales the adverse effects the barrage would have on the ecology of the estuary and the visual impact of cooling towers, I think the choice is clear.

If we build neither the lights will go out and the food in our freezers will rot !!

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Comments

Local people have made a number of comments on the nuclear vs barrage power debate, and based on what I've been hearing I would argue for the plant at Oldbury. If these are the only schemes that can offer us the power we will be demanding in the immediate future then one of the projects will have to go ahead, and point for point Oldbury seems to be the best solution.

By jmitchell27 at 15:39 on 02/03/10
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