Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Will Hayward

The incredible scale of the nuclear power station being built by 1000 Welsh men and women twenty miles from Cardiff

Pictures from the UK's newest nuclear power plant show the enormous scale of the development within eyesight of Wales.

Located less than 20 miles as the crow flies from the Welsh capital, Hinkley Point C in Somerset is the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK in over 20 years.

The controversial development has had a lot of media coverage but few people know the role Wales is playing in the building and eventual running of enormous facility.

All over the plant, which when completed will provide electricity to 6 million homes, there are links to Wales.

Welsh steel

The plant has just reached its biggest milestone so far since work began in 2016.

The completion of the base for the first reactor, known as “J-zero”, means that the construction of the nuclear buildings above ground can now begin.

The base was made with 5,000 tonnes of Welsh steel and the 9,000m³ of concrete used was the largest concrete pour in the UK, beating a record set by the Shard in London.

Neath-based company Express Reinforcements won a contract worth over £100m linked to tjhe use of steel on the site.

These pictures show the amount of Welsh steel used in the development:

Reinforced with 5,000 tonnes of Welsh steel, the concrete base took 240 hours to complete. (EDF)
Workers construct reinforced steel around giant water cooling pipes (PA)
The huge circular mass of reinforced steel was filled with the UK's largest ever concrete pour (PA)
Construction workers stand on the steel base for the first reactor (PA)
A pipework for the cooling water systems are built into the base (EDF Energy)

Welsh workforce

Once it is up and running the plant will, according to EDF, create 25,000 employment opportunities and up to 1,000 apprenticeships.

Already people in Wales are taking advantage of this with a quarter of the people working on site (1,000 of 4,000) being Welsh.

Hinkley Point jobs groups have already appeared on Facebook with a significant percentage of the members coming from within Wales.

Workers from Wales are travelling down to the site every day to work on the enormous constructions (PA)

Some Welsh apprentices are also already on the site.

A total of 21 apprentices from the suspended Wylfa Newdd new nuclear project will now continue their training as part of the construction of Hinkley Point C.

The apprentices will join EDF Energy and work towards either a nuclear engineering degree apprenticeship or an engineering and maintenance apprenticeship. 

Helen Higgs, head of organisational capability at the plant said: "We are pleased to be able to support the future training and development of these apprentices.

"Once their training is complete, the apprentices will have access to future opportunities throughout the civil nuclear industry, including future nuclear projects in Wales.

"We have an aspiration to create 1,000 new apprenticeships throughout the course of the project and this new cohort will join almost 400 other apprentices that have already been trained to date."

According to EDF there are also other Welsh companies involved in the site.

They said that over 100 companies based in Wales are part of the supply chain for the project.

"These vary from  steel fabrication, training, engineering, scaffolding, water management, to transportation and site services.

Welsh rock

Lifting vessels and boulders destined for Hinkley Point Reactor, Somerset

Pembroke Port recently undertook the huge operation of moving 15,000 tonnes of granite to the Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset, via a specialist rock barge.

The Pembroke quayside is where Pembrokeshire-based GD Harries sent its rock to be transported.

Pembrokeshire rock was chosen to complete the specialist order after chemical analysis showed that it had the strength and durability to protect the plant's sea wall.

The stone can now be found as rock armour forming the first layer of sea defence for the new reactor.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.