Flood Defences Will Need Improving to Secure Dungeness C

A British Energy report into the suitability of its eight UK sites as possible locations for next-generation nuclear plants has said that for Dungeness to be a suitable location there would have to be re-positioning and new sea defences. British Energy named its sites at Dungeness on Romney Marsh, Sizewell in Suffolk, Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex as the most likely places for new reactors.

Despite their own projection of a rise in average sea levels at Dungeness of 1.22 metres over the next 50 years. British Energy claims the site would be suitable, along with all its other seven sites in the UK, but notes for the Kent site:

"The station structures should be stepped back to accommodate future coastal erosion, with appropriate flood defences also set back to absorb the increasing erosive force."

The report is a review of site work needed to counter the impact of climate change, due to concerns that rising sea water and increasingly heavy rains could threaten power stations on coastal sites.

The firm has already embarked on transmission connection agreements with National Grid for each of the key sites it owns in the South of England at Sizewell, Hinkley, Dungeness and Bradwell, starting in 2016.

British Energy's eight sites in the UK are:

• Sizewell, Suffolk
• Hinkley Point, Somerset
• Bradwell, Essex
• Dungeness, Kent
• Heysham, Lancashire
• Torness, East Lothian
• Hunterston, Ayrshire
• Hartlepool