No-one should underestimate the impact Hinkley Point A Power Station has had on the local economy, said Bridgwater MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger.
He was speaking at a Business Breakfast held at Cannington College and attended by more than 60 representatives from local industry, education and local authorities.
Mr Liddell-Grainger said at one stage 2,600 people were employed building the power station and during its working life it had produced enough electricity to supply the whole of the UK's domestic needs for 12 months.
He said: "It has done wonders for the local economy and wherever I go in the constituency I meet people who have worked there or have some connection with the power station. You have a reputation as exemplary employers in the area."
Mr Liddell-Grainger added that the contribution the nuclear industry had made to electricity production in this country should not be underestimated.
Station manager Joe Lamonby said during its decommissioning phase the station would continue to provide employment for a number of years. Around 340 people had been employed when a decision was made on economic grounds to close the station in May 2000. More than 230 are still employed there and those who had left had been redeployed or taken early retirement.
Mr Lamonby told the audience: "We still have a very important role to play in the community and the purpose of this morning is to make sure you have an understanding of what is going to happen over the next few years."
He added that there had been some unfounded speculation that a proposed new intermediate level waste store at Hinkley A would be used to store waste from other sites. Mr Lamonby said that was simply not true and the store would only house intermediate level waste which was already on the site. It would be recovered, set in grout or cement and kept in specially designed stainless containers in a totally passive and safe state.
The need to continue to store ILW on site is because there is currently no national repository for it.
Hinkley Point A decommissioning project manager, Ken Allan, told the audience that high level waste and low level waste would continue to be taken off site. Once defuelling was completed in three or four years time, 99 per cent of the radioactivity will have gone.
He said: "Hinkley Point A will not be the first nuclear plant to be decommissioned. We already have a lot of experience in this area and we will continue to be closely regulated as a nuclear licensed site."
Mr Allan said as decommissioning progressed they would have to bring in contractors and wherever possible they would try and use local labour.
An Environmental Statement prepared in relation to the decommissioning is currently out for public consultation and permission to physically start decommissioning could be given by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate by the end of the year.
The business breakfast was part of a major communications programme by Hinkley Point A to make people aware of its decommissioning strategy.
Presentations have already been given to a number of local councils and letters and leaflets explaining the process sent to hundreds of local people and councillors throughout Somerset and Bristol. Copies of the leaflet have also been made available in pubs, health centres, information centres and at more than 40 libraries across the county.
Copies of the leaflet are available by ringing 01278 654283.
