Wiltshire’s Euro MP Dr Caroline Jackson has welcomed the Government’s announcement of potential sites for new nuclear power stations.

Two of them are in her South West constituency.

Dr Jackson, who will be standing down as an MEP at the elections in June, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Hinkley Point in Somerset have been chosen and I very much hope that new power stations are built there with the minimum of delay.

“They will mean assured jobs for local people and assured, home-generated power for people in Britain.

“I have visited nuclear power stations in Finland, where the newest one in Europe is under construction, and the US, as well as Hinkley Point itself.

“I am satisfied nuclear power is safe, and that we can find satisfactory solutions to the problem of storage of nuclear waste.

“Such new nuclear stations will help us end a situation where we are reliant on politically dodgy countries for essential power supplies.

“I hope very much that construction now gets going with the minimum of delay.”

Opponents of nuclear power point to the consequences of accidents, such as that at the Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine in 1986, and the problems of getting rid of waste products, which remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.