A CAMPAIGN group has renewed calls for plans for a new power station to be abandoned after it was decided a project in Somerset should face review.

The Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) is fighting against plans for a Chinese-backed nuclear power station.

Last year EDF Energy signed heads of terms, principles which precede a contract, with China General Nuclear Power Corporation for Bradwell B on a greenfield site next to the former station.

The Chinese firm will provide two thirds of development costs and hopes to begin work by 2023. Up to 25,000 jobs will be created during construction.

Last week the Government called for a review of the Hinkley Point C project.

BANNG believes it could put the Bradwell project in the balance if Hinkley Point C falls through.

Professor Andy Blowers, chairman of BANNG, said: “All the more reason why we must be vigilant and not rely on the nuclear programme being scrapped.

“We need to draw attention to the reasons why Bradwell is simply neither acceptable nor sustainable as a site for a new nuclear power station and highly radioactive waste store.

“The site is too vulnerable, the environmental impact too severe, the risk of accident and incident too prevalent and the potential for catastrophe too disturbing for a new nuclear power station to be built by the Chinese on this site.”

But the group admitted the Bradwell project may be unaffected by the review.

Professor Blowers added: “At this present juncture, the question of whether Bradwell is more or less likely to be developed by the Chinese as a consequence of the Hinkley review is too close to call.

“In such an atmosphere of uncertainty the opportunity is presented to redouble our efforts to sink the project and to remove the threat it poses to the Blackwater environment and its communities now and in the future.”