In a group of quiet countryside villages only a short drive from Bristol, residents feel left in the lurch about whether or not a nuclear power station could be built on their doorsteps. Up until 2019, plans were in the works to build a new nuclear reactor in South Gloucestershire, which would have been constructed in the parish of Shepperdine.
In September 2020, the company behind the projects, Hitachi, announced that it would end its business operations on the plant but would "keep the lines of communication open" with the government. And Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK project developer that Hitachi acquired in November 2012, said it "maintained the capability to remobilise" in the event that a new financing model was re-established, according to World Nuclear News.
The South Gloucestershire area is already home to one decommissioned nuclear power plant, a massive structure in Oldbury. And in October 2021, South Gloucestershire was named on the shortlist to be home to the world’s first working nuclear fusion plant, which would be built at the abandoned power station, if the proposal is given the go-ahead by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
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But in Hill, a tiny village near the site of the proposed second plant, some residents say they are uncertain about what the future holds. According to local Simon Soffe, people in the village have not had any communication for two years on whether a new plant could be built.
"When they were doing the original plan there were newsletters and there was a bit more information, but since then it's been silent," he told Bristol Live.
Simon said that, at the time, he was concerned about the possibility of a nuclear plant being built near his home, given that some of the world's greatest disasters have happened because of faults in power plants like Fukushima. He said he raised these concerns at the time, but "we haven't had an answer back".
The original plans in South Gloucestershire led to changes in the countryside villages. In 2014, Newsquest reported that the former Windbound pub in nearby Shepperdine would be demolished to make way for the power station, while Simon says that many houses were snapped up by Hitashi to be razed, only to be sold again when plans fell through.
Today, the site where the plant would be built remains as it was, but there is uncertainty about what could happen next. If progress is made and a new plant is built, Simon has concerns about the "chaos" which could happen if scores of construction vehicles start making their way through the "small, narrow, winding" countryside roads, particularly as new houses have been built in surrounding areas like Thornbury since 2014.
"I think there's a big change to the roads in Thornbury, there's been big housing construction projects. The area has mushroomed. It would have an impact in a much bigger way," he said.
Another local, who asked not to be named, said that he also had concerns about construction. But, he said, Hill is far enough away from the site that was proposed that it did not concern him too much, especially as Oldbury already has a power plant. "We live with it anyway, the Oldbury plant is there. It hasn't not caused an issue in the past so I can't see it would in the future," he said.
And, he added, with the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine driving gas prices up, there is a need for new energy sources. "Let them crack on with it. We need power so we're not relying on Russia," he said.
