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Marine and conservation groups say up to half a million fish will be sucked into Hinkley Point C every day if a new "giant plughole" is installed.

EDF, the firm behind the £20 billion nuclear power plant near Bridgwater, has applied for permission to change the design of its cooling system which will draw water directly from Bristol Channel.

The water, which will be used to help cool the plant, will then be returned to the Bristol Channel.

This will also include a 'Fish Return System'.

Construction on two intake 3.3km tunnels in the seabed, both large enough to drive a double-decker bus through, has already started.

Environmental organisations including the Angling Trust, Blue Marine Foundation, Bristol Channel Federation of Sea Anglers, Severn Rivers Trust, Somerset Wildlife Trust and Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust have issued a joint statement about the plans.

(Image: EDF)

The group believes half of those fish sucked into the system will die every day or at least become "seriously injured".

They also believe the omission of previously promised Acoustic Fish Deterrent (AFD) speakers will be detrimental as it would "keep up to 90 per cent of specialist hearing fish away from the intakes".

A statement reads: "If permitted, it will give a green light to the nuclear power industry to kill millions more fish in UK waters in order to draw seawater to cool reactors, including at Sizewell in Suffolk and potentially Bradwell in Essex.

"Although a mesh will stop larger fish being sucked into the Hinkley Point C itself, this serves only to protect the machinery.

"Many fish will die either pressed against the mesh, or in the system of buckets and chutes which will return injured fish, along with the dead, back to sea."

EDF has questioned the groups' figures and believe that an estimated 650,000 fish will die every YEAR.

The French energy giants add the speakers would add a "minimal benefit" to wildlife and its construction would prove a "safety risk to workers (which) is unacceptable to the Hinkley Point C project".

The environmental groups believe EDF's figures "grossly underestimate" fish losses and called upon Environment Agency to reject EDF's application to remove the AFD speakers and, if marine damage is too high without them, to insist that other cooling methods are explored instead.

Michele Bowe, director of conservation at Somerset Wildlife Trust, said: " The degree of uncertainty around the evidence on potential fish kill should be acknowledged by EDF.

"Without clarity on the impacts on fish populations and the wider ecosystem health of one of England's most highly protected estuaries, we believe EDF must adopt a more precautionary approach.

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"It is of grave concern that EDF is seeking to cancel one third of the measures originally imposed to protect fish numbers when construction work of the tunnel systems is well underway."

Chris Fayers, head of environment at Hinkley Point C, said: "Studies have shown that the power station would have a negligible impact on local fish stocks with the proposed fish protection measures in place.

"These are a fish return system and water intakes specially designed to slow the water coming into the cooling pipes. Hinkley Point C will be the first power station in the Bristol Channel to have fish protection measures.

"The total amount of fish estimated to be killed has been predicted by Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) to be around 56 tonnes in a year, equivalent to one small fishing trawler's annual catch."

EDF believe fish will be protected by other measures, one of which will slow the water entering the system and another which will return to the sea the fish sucked in.

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