Such disturbances may be separated into visual and political considera­tions.

6.4.1.1 Visual

Individuals living in the locality, preservation groups, and the power industry itself are all concerned in lessening the impact of the power plant on the countryside. This can be done by siting in relation to geographical features, architectural design, and landscaping.

The power plant may be sited advantageously to diminish the height of buildings, to hide transformer yards, to remove power transmission lines from skylines, and to use existing roads and facilities where possible. Archi­tectural design enters into the picture by the design, placing, and coloring of buildings that blend rather than strike the eye. The British Steam Gen­erating Heavy Water Reactor (7c), for example, was built in the lee of a small hill, half below grade; the building was colored green and oriented to diminish its effect on the area, all in order to improve its visual impact. Landscaping of every industrial installation is of course commonplace although less effective with very large power plant buildings.

Nuclear power plants are clearly much simpler to make visually attractive than fossil-fueled power plants because of the lack of a smoke stack and the lack of vast fuel storage areas around the site. Both types of system have the same problems of power transmission and their associated high voltage lines.

The fast reactor is a smaller reactor for a given power output, but as far as associated plant is concerned, it is essentially the same size as the thermal light water systems and has the same siting visual effects as other nuclear plants.