Hinkley Point welcomes UK’s first nuclear reactor in over 30 years

CONSTRUCTION at the Hinkley Point C power plant in Somerset has reached an important milestone with the installation of the UK’s first nuclear reactor in over 30 years.

French state-owned energy giant EDF announced on Wednesday that it had successfully lowered the 13 m tall, 500 t reactor into place.

The reactor is the first of two for the plant and was built by EDF subsidiary Framatome. EDF say a single reactor will be capable of generating electricity for 3m homes. The two reactors together are expected to generate 7% of the UK’s total electricity once it is fully up and running.

The UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the installation was a “major step forward for the UK’s most advanced nuclear project”.

Stuart Crooks, Hinkley Point C managing director, said: “We are working hard to play our part and using the experience gained delivering the first reactor to drive efficiencies in building our second one.”

New reactors

The last time a nuclear reactor was installed in the UK was at Sizewell B in Suffolk in 1991 which used the advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) design. All the UK’s live nuclear reactors are AGR, which uses CO2 as a coolant.

The reactors at Hinkley Point C, however, have a newer design called EPR, which instead uses water as a coolant and is considered safer than AGR. A further EPR reactor is planned for the UK once Sizewell C construction gets underway on the Suffolk coast.

Hinkley Point C has suffered from delays and cost rises since construction began in 2017, at which point it was slated to start generating in 2025 at a total cost of £18bn (US$23bn). However, current estimates put 2029 as the earliest start-date, while the total predicted cost has more than doubled to £46bn.

Delays have caused concerns of a gap in the UK’s electricity generation, leading to EDF to extend the lifetimes of four of its existing nuclear reactors in the country earlier this week.