Energy Giant EDF making good progress at Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station

Six months after contracts were signed for Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station Energy Giant EdF revealed out the progress details made at the power station. It includes the confirmation of concreate pouring at galleries and cabeling and pipes of galleries.

Construction of the building for the first reactor at HPC is scheduled to start in 2019 when concrete will be poured for the first time to make the reactor platform.

EDF Energy has also released new images and video showing the scale of construction which now involves 1,600 workers on site every day.  Three million tonnes of concrete and 230,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement will be used in construction, with 64% of the contract values being spent in the UK. The steel reinforcement is being supplied by Express Reinforcements from South Wales.

Other progress includes:

•        Start of construction of a 500m temporary jetty in the Bristol Channel allowing 80% of the aggregate to be brought in by sea rather than by road. Two pile-driving machines are drilling holes in the bedrock and have so far installed 18 piles. The jetty is due for ompletion in 2018. Every shipload of materials will take the equivalent of 250 lorry-loads off the local roads.

•        Construction of a store which can contain 57,000 tonnes of aggregate. Work will soon begin on the conveyor systems to carry the aggregate around the site.

•        Excavation of 3 million cubic metres of soil and rock to prepare the ground for the power station buildings. Almost 6 million cubic metres will be excavated in total.

•        Construction of the first two tower cranes. The larger of the two cranes is 40 metres high with a 60m jib and has a lifting capacity of 16 tonnes. More than 50 tower cranes will be on site once building work reaches its peak.

•        Work to build 15 on-site accommodation buildings for more than 500 workers has begun. Manufacturing of the first of the 510 units is underway at Caledonian Modular in Newark, Nottinghamshire. The company has doubled its workforce to complete the order.

•        Good progress is being made on the sea wall which will provide a barrier between the power station and the coastline. Construction teams will need to excavate 165,000m3 of material in order to build it.

•        A spray batching plant has been built to produce a finer quality of concrete which will be sprayed to secure slopes at the site.

Image: Concrete pour at Hinkley Point C (Source: EDF Energy)