Hinkley - fish

Nuclear power station will have more fish protection measures than any

other, including ‘highly effective’ acoustic fish deterrent, claims
developer EDF. EDF Energy says that trials have shown the new acoustic fish
deterrent planned for Hinkley Point C to be ‘highly effective’, but the
local Wildlife Trust has queried the veracity of the claims and the total
investment into nature protection by the developer. The developer says that
sea trials carried out by Swansea University show that the deterrent, which
uses ultrasound technology, is able to
keep target fish species away from the power station’s water
intakes. Dr David Clarke, a fisheries scientist and marine ecologist at
Swansea University, said that the early results ‘are very encouraging
with the system clearly working’, showing that ‘a large majority of the
tagged shad avoid an area extending some 60m from the intake heads
protected by the acoustic fish deterrent system’. EDF says that Hinkley
Point C will have more fish protection measures than any other power
station in the world, with three systems costing £700m in total. Firstly,
the developer says, the four cooling water intake heads – which sit on
the seabed – are designed to allow fish to swim away from as close as 2m.
Secondly, a fish return system will transfer any fish entering the
cooling pipes back to the sea. These two systems, EDF says, means ‘the
remaining impact on fish will be very small’. The acoustic fish
deterrent is the third system, developed by Devon firm Fishtek Marine to
allow it to be deployed without endangering divers in the extreme tides of
the Bristol Channel. It is, EDF says, ‘compact compared to earlier
proposed systems that used more than 250 underwater loudspeakers’.
Fishtek Marine is perhaps best known for its work on Disco Scallops, which
sees lights added to pots with the aim of enabling a lower-impact form of
fishing than dredging. Pete Kibel, managing director of Fishtek Marine,
said: “Building on our existing acoustic deterrent technology, we
have now developed a highly effective system that will protect fish in
the Severn estuary and potentially be an option for many more power
stations throughout the world.” EDF says that tests with
tagged twaite shad – a member of the herring family that migrates to
freshwater to spawn – showed that with the acoustic fish deterrent turned
on, only one tagged shad came within 30m of the intake heads, compared
to 14 seen in the same area without the system turned on. This, it
says, ‘suggests an effectiveness of more than 90%’, with additional
testing in tanks to continue throughout the first half of 2026. Swansea
University’s research also provided ‘a much better understanding of
the movements and location of fish populations in the Severn estuary’,
said EDF, showing that salmon migrating to the Atlantic generally
use the main channel, well away from Hinkley Point C’s water intakes,
with only two tagged salmon detected within 1km of the intakes in two
years. EDF’s Chris Fayers, head of environment at Hinkley Point C, said
that the system ‘works even better than we had hoped’, meaning EDF
could ‘meet all of our planning obligations, and should
not need to create 900 acres of saltmarsh as environmental
compensation’. That, however, will be decided by the MMO later in the
year, when EDF plans to submit its research for a determination. The
Wildlife Trusts, however, says that EDF has made ‘distorted claims’
about the cost of the deterrent. Matt Browne, head of public affairs at the
Wildlife Trusts, said: “The developers of Hinkley C continue to
misrepresent the impact that the nuclear plant will have on nature.” He
added that the claim that EDF is spending £700m to protect nature is
‘highly misleading’, with the real total closer to £50m. “It also
misrepresents the number of fish affected by the proposed plant,” Mr
Browne continued. “They spotlight the suggestion that just two salmon
will be killed per year, when Environment Agency experts warn that 4.6
million fish will die every year – including critically endangered
species such as European eel.” The UK Government, the Wildlife Trusts
alleges, is now considering recommendations that will lead to nature
protections being severely compromised ‘on the basis of false claims’.

 Fishing News 18th Feb 2026 

 https://fishingnews.co.uk/news/hinkley-point-c-underestimating-kills-says-wildlife-trusts/