EDF has said offshore work to install an underwater cooling water system for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is moving into its final stages.
Two huge jack-up vessels have arrived off the coast of the plant in Somerset to install six vertical shafts which will help connect six miles of tunnels on the seabed of the Bristol Channel to the facility’s nuclear reactors. Regarded as one of the world’s most complex marine engineering projects – owing to the Bristol Channel having the second-highest tidal range on the planet - 5,000-tonne intake and outfall heads for the system were placed on the seabed last summer.
The new components will be installed at a depth of more than 20 metres. Miners will then dig a horizontal connection between the bottom of the shaft and the tunnel, in order to link in the intake and outfall heads, which are designed to circulate the cooling water to the plant’s two nuclear reactors. The vessels, the 132 metre-long Neptune and the 60 metre-long Sea Challenger, have a combined lifting capacity of 1,500 tonnes.
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Jonathan Smith, area delivery director for Hinkley Point, said: “This is one of the final stages of our offshore operations, which will see teams from EDF, Balfour Beatty and New Wave Solutions working together to deliver yet another incredible feat of engineering. The cooling water system is critical to the power station – which will help Britain fight climate change and achieve stronger energy security.”
Roger Frost, project director at Balfour Beatty, said: “The arrival of Neptune and Sea Challenger marks another significant step forward in the successful delivery of the first new nuclear power station in the UK for over 20 years. We now look forward to utilising our unique capability and unrivalled expertise to continue with the linking up of the six miles of tunnels which are buried below the Bristol Channel – this is another important chapter in the offshore works required for Hinkley Point C’s critical water-cooling system.”
EDF said work to install the shafts will continue into the autumn. The first nuclear reactor for Hinkley Point C arrived at the site near Bridgwater earlier this year. The French energy giant told investors in February that Hinkley Point C could now cost more than £30bn to complete due to inflation, amid rising prices for building materials and labour.
In a presentation of its annual results, the utilities firm told investors that while “the real cost remains unchanged” for one of Europe’s largest construction projects, “the estimated nominal cost at completion could reach £32.7bn”. The start of commercial electricity generation at the site is slated for June 2027. Full construction of Hinkley Point C began in 2016. It was originally estimated the project would cost £18bn to build.
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