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Environmentalists have attacked a decision to give the go-ahead for a new nuclear station less than 15 miles from the South Wales coast.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey announced he is granting consent for French energy giant EDF to build a plant at Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

Plans for a new station on Anglesey to replace the existing Magnox Wylfa plant are similarly expected to get Government approval as part of coalition plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) Cymru said the Hinkley Point decision means Britain will generate highly radioactive waste with nowhere to dump it after Cumbria county council recently rejected plans for a new £12bn storage facility there.

Mr Davey has said he is confident a solution can be found to the problem of where to store waste from Britain’s next generation of plants.

FoE Cymru director Gareth Clubb said waste from both Hinkley Point and Anglesey will have to be stored deep underground for around 160 years.

Mr Clubb believes the nation should instead invest in renewable energy like wind and solar.

He said: “It’s simply unthinkable that (160 years) in the future we’ll still be depending on large, centralised power generation facilities when the rate of small-scale decentralised renewable technologies is going through the roof.”

Newport West Labour MP Paul Flynn, a long-time opponent of nuclear power, maintains the new £14bn Hinkley Point, less than 15 miles from Barry, in the Vale of Glamorgan, will need massive subsidies for decades.

The level of subsidy will be set by the “strike price” the Government agrees with the nuclear industry for the electricity it generates.

The industry is demanding a strike price high enough to enable it to meet the multi-billion pound investment required in building new plants.

Where the market price for electricity falls below the industry’s contracted strike price the difference will be made up by a surcharge on customer bills.

A final investment decision by EDF to go ahead on Hinkley still depends on the deal being negotiated with the Government on the strike price.

Reports suggest the strike price on contracts that could run for 40 years is likely to be just under £100 per megawatt hour, around double the current market price of electricity.

Environmental campaign group E3G has calculated that at just below £100 a unit EDF would receive £50bn in support from the Government over four decades for Hinkley.

Reports suggest the Government has abandoned a commitment not to subsidise the industry following uncertainty created by Japan’s Fukushima disaster that saw a number of firms exit nuclear.

Last year, RWE npower and E.ON pulled out of the project to build the new Wylfa and replace another Magnox reactor at Oldbury, Gloucestershire.

The scheme has since been bought by Hitachi.

Mr Flynn said the recent history of nuclear is littered with problems – EDF stations currently under construction in Finland and Flamanville, France are years behind schedule and billions over budget.

He said: “We have a rigged market in nuclear otherwise no sensible person would invest in it when no power station is built on time or on budget.”

The new Wylfa plant has to be approved by the Planning Inspectorate and have its reactor design given the green light by the Office for Nuclear Regulation before Mr Davey can issue the “development consent order” he gave for Hinkley yesterday.

Mr Davey told the House of Commons affordable new nuclear would play a “crucial role'” in ensuring secure, diverse supplies of energy in the UK and decarbonising the electricity sector.

The plant’s two 1.6 gigawatt nuclear reactors would be capable of producing 7% of the UK’s electricity, enough to power five million homes, EDF has said.

Mr Davey said: “This planned project adds to a number of new energy projects consented since May 2010, including wind farms and biomass and gas-fired power stations.

“This planned new nuclear power station in Somerset will generate vast amounts of clean energy and enhance our energy security.”