Significant milestone reached in construction of UK's newest nuclear power plant

Hinkley Point C: A major milestone is reached in the construction of the UK's newest nuclear power plant.

Workers have installed reactors at the first nuclear power plant to be built in the UK for 30 years.

Hundreds of engineers and construction crews spent several days lifting the 500-tonne steel rig and installing it at Hinkley Point C, near Bridgewater, Somerset.

“This was a huge undertaking for all the teams involved,” said Matt Abbott, who led the installation team. “This is the heart of the plant.”

The 13-metre (42.6-foot) long plant is one of two reactors that will contain a nuclear chain reaction capable of producing enough power for six million homes when it comes online in 2030.

Hinckley Point C

A 500-ton steel reactor is lowered into position at Hinkley Point.

The massive steel cylinder worked for 12 hours before being rolled up and lifted onto the side of the reactor building.

It then had to be moved along rails through a huge equipment hatch, rotated 90 degrees and then carefully lowered onto the prepared base.

It will remain there for 60 years of nuclear operation, and for decades afterward.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called it “a big step forward.”

He said: Getting Hinkley operational, generating clean power for six million homes, will be a win for our long-term energy independence.”

Hinckley Point C

The 13-metre-long cylinder was flipped in the air and lowered into place by a specially built crane.

At least 12,000 employees work with more than 100 cranes. The reactor will power a 25-metre-tall steam generator and drive a turbine with the longest blades ever built.

However, the project has been delayed due to political wrangling, the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues.

It is scheduled to open five years later than originally planned. The estimated cost increased from 18 billion won in 2017 to 46 billion won.

Nevertheless, the installation of the reactor is an important milestone.

So how does it work, who made it, and when will it be turned on?

Matt Abbott led hundreds of construction workers who lifted the “heart of Hinkley” into place.

How does it work?

The reactor is known as the “Heart of Hinkley”.

This contains radioactive uranium, which is split by fission in a chain reaction that generates a lot of heat.

The internal temperature averages 300C. Pressures reach 155 bar, five times higher than on a submarine at normal operating depths.

The steel vessel is 25 cm thick, 13 m (42.6 ft) long and weighs 500 tons.

Hinckley Point C

The white-clad reactor was winched up to a hatch in the building where it would be stored for more than 60 years.

A closed loop of pressurized water is passed around the reactor and heated.

This heat is exchanged with the second water cycle and turns into steam. The steam will drive turbines that produce Hinkley's electricity.

“We have two nuclear reactors, each of which will power about 3 million homes,” Mr Abbott said. So this is a huge deal and now this is the beginning of the journey for us.”

Who made it?

The reactor took six years to build and was built in France by a company called Framatome, owned by EDF, which is also building Hinkley Point C.

EDF is owned by the French government.

Building the reactor was a matter of “tremendous pride” for Framatome employees, according to Mathieu Gaulthier, who leads the company's team in Somerset.

So why did key components for Britain's first new nuclear power plant in a generation have to be manufactured overseas?

Jennifer Tompkins, an apprentice welder at Framatome UK in Avonmouth, operates a high-tech semi-automatic welding machine.

The last reactor built was completed in 1991,” said Ian Henderson, head of Framatome UK.

“Then that skill base was lost.”

Now the company is trying to change that.

At their new factory in Avonmouth, near Bristol, they are training high-level welders and fitters to the exacting standards of the nuclear industry.

For Hinkley C, we are building tanks and other structures. But future nuclear projects hope to take on more sophisticated tasks.

Mr Henderson explained: “It’s taken quite a few years to build these technologies to where they are today, and we want to maintain them and continue to invest in them.

When will it turn on?

In 2007, Vincent de Rivaz, the French leader of the EDF, predicted that Britons would be cooking their Christmas turkey with the power of Hinkley in 10 years.

In fact, 2017 was the year that M. de Rivaz left EDF. In Somerset, the work is just beginning.

PA Media

Engineers will use the world's largest land-based crane to lift the dome roof to the reactor building in December 2023.

With the first concrete poured, the company says it will be operational by 2025.

But what followed was a global pandemic, war in Ukraine, and global supply chain disruptions.

Now the company expects to start making progress by “the end of 2010.”

Putting the reactor in place means a big milestone has been passed.

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