An acoustic fish deterrent system has been shown to keep target species away from Hinkley Point C’s cooling water intakes in the Severn Estuary.
Hinkley Point C, the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation, is planned to open in 2029. Located on the Severn Estuary in Somerset, it has direct access to seawater for cooling its steam turbines, with the cooling system including four intake heads on the seabed that draw water into the plant via tunnels.
The Severn Estuary is an important habitat for fish and marine life, so the challenge is to prevent these species from being drawn into the cooling system. Power station developer EDF Energy, the UK arm of French state-owned firm EDF, has put in place three separate fish protection systems that it said cost more than £700m in total. The first system involves specially designed intake heads that slow the speed of water entering the cooling tunnels, allowing fish to escape from as close as two metres in a 20-kilometre-wide channel. The second...