TORY MP Bernard Jenkin has vowed not to give a new nuclear power station in Bradwell his full support until he is satisfied environmental concerns are met.

Bernard Jenkin’s Harwich and North Essex constituency covers West Mersea, which is less than two miles from the proposed site.

He said Government plans to build a power station at Bradwell would not get his unqualified support until his worries over the future of marine life in the River Blackwater were investigated.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have criticised Mr Jenkin for not opposing the plans. The new site, which could be operational by 2025, would need five times more water than the plant which shut in 2002.

Mr Jenkin said: “The treatment of the water and where the inflow and outflow of it from the Blackwater Estuary are critical.

“I will not be giving this plan my unqualified support until the environmental concerns are met.”

He added: “It will bring a huge number of jobs during the construction first and then employ 800 for the next 50 years, which is only good for the economy.”

Ministers will begin writing the Bradwell planning policy statement, which has to be completed before any planning application goes to Essex County Council.

The Government is pushing ahead with plans for eight sites where the next generation of nuclear power plants can be built.