In anticipation of Clean Power!

It is rare to receive an offer to visit a plant site. And not just any other construction site, but the UK’s largest low-carbon twin-reactor nuclear power plant in the making. I pounced on such an important and interesting opportunity. I have never seen any power plant up and close, so I was excited to visit the EDF Hinkley Point C (HPC) project. Hinkley is a small village near the west coast of Somerset County. EDF, the electricity company has two previous plants A (ceased generation in 2003) and B (ceased generation in 2022) and Plant C is under construction, to be commenced around 2030. What makes Plant C so special? It is the first to be constructed in this century and after 30 years such a large-scale project is planned and executed in line with the net zero goals. Once completed, it will provide electricity to close to 6 million homes in the UK. All this and much more allured me to take this work trip down the West Coast to witness the future of clean power and history.

Given the scale and nature of such a strategic and large project, security and safety are paramount. Our group was picked from the town close by, and from here we took a short ride to the visitor’s center. An old grade 2 building is now repurposed to host visitors, to help them understand the process of nuclear power generation, the plant’s working when completed, and track the progress virtually. From the entrance, it looked like a college or an old government building with vast lawns and a nice café. The wall-hanging purple Wisteria (type of plant) was in full bloom and spread a sweet fragrance in the courtyard. The bright sun and clear day added to the charm; from no angle, it looked like I was visiting a power plant’s visitors center.

Once inside, we were greeted by a gracious host who explained the processing and other details about the project and how it would help light a million homes. I found the discussions and concerns raised very interesting. The group discussed the carbon emissions, the risk of nuclear waste, the cost of the plant, and its benefits and drawbacks in the long run. The most important was what we learned from the past catastrophic mishaps and how we ensure safety and security now and in the future.

Post the insightful conversation we headed to view the models and videos in the ultra-modern centre. I loved that it was built for the common public and students who want to understand nuclear power plants as a technology, as a life support to many people, and as a source of clean power. I was blown away by the real-life models, interactive games, and quizzes that fed the curious minds of the young and old equally. The huge wall-sized screen played the videos of the constructions giving it a movie effect. Once out, I marveled at the old building, now a source of knowledge to learn and demystify our concerns about nuclear as a technology to generate electricity.

We then took a short bus ride through the picturesque Somerset villages. On the way, the guide shared fascinating stories about the movement of heavy equipment through the snaking roads. More often, the jetty through the British Channel is used leaving the villagers with sign of relief. Once near the site, we passed through multiple security posts, I saw the most gigantic and phenomenal site. There were hundreds of cranes left hanging in the sky. Up close we saw the world’s biggest (as of today) land-based crane called ‘the Big Carl’ weighing 250 tonnes and can lift five thousand tonnes in a single lift, it has rail tracks to move. We were informed that it took nearly 280 trucks and a few boats to get the parts from Belgium to this site. It took four months to assemble the parts before it was operational.

Given that it is the largest plant under construction, there were numerous other heavy machines and make-shift construction sites responsible for creating various parts for the plant. I saw few concrete generation units up close that could churn tonnes of concrete required for the end-to-end constructions that work round the clock. We were told it broke the record to churn cement and sand for seventy-three hours at a stretch. I was blown by the scale of work be it iron reinforcements, steelwork, pipework, cabling, overhead cranes. Since thousands of workers work round the clock, there are employee health care centers, canteens, sports facilities, and residential buildings on site to ensure their well-being and safety.

The whole site felt as if my engineering lessons were played live in front of me. Units 1 & 2 will hold the reactor and the other equipment. The structures together look like they can accommodate even the Colosseum. Unit 2 is fast approaching next to Unit 1 and seems to be completed sooner than planned as lessons learned are applied every day. Although, on paper the process looks simple in reality it is a lot harder, longer, and costlier.

At the reactor's core will be Uranium dioxide pellets or splits arranged in tubes forming the nuclear fuel rods. There will be assemblies of such rods at the core. Outside these will be control rods that manage the reactions. All these will be housed inside a steel container to control the high pressures and temperatures generated during the reactions. The heat will be converted into steam which will then be used to rotate the turbines. The Turbine hall, fifty meters in height, will have Arabelle steam turbines, the largest in the world so far. The generator attached to it will then convert it to electricity. This electricity will then be sent to the Grid for downstream distribution. The residual heat of the steam will be cooled using the cold seawater in the tunnels below. The higher temperature water will be flushed back into the sea. We are told that all environmental standards are followed to ensure no harm is caused to the sea life. My concerns about nuclear waste mixing with the seawater and polluting the sea life were laid to rest.

Once the fuel splits are depleted they are replaced with fresh fuels and the old are stored away securely. It is not harmful unless a reaction happens. However, governments are yet to come up with safe disposal policies and technology is yet at a nascent stage. Many of us were concerned about the risk of radioactive exposure as in past incidences in Ukraine and Japan. We were assured that extensive research and study were carried out before the site was approved. The International Atomic Energy Agency has improved the regulations for new plants so we don't repeat any past mistakes.

Nuclear, has had bad press in the past due to a lack of scientific enhancements and our ways of handling it. It is now considered a clean source of generating electricity. The net carbon emission once the plant is operational is close to nil. All the carbon emitted during the years of construction will be discounted within a year of functioning. These plants are now more efficient than Coal power plants. A thousand MW reactor requires around 27 tonnes of Uranium annually. However, a coal plant of similar size requires 2.7 million tonnes of coal annually. We were informed that there are enough discovered Uranium deposits to suffice for centuries.

I stood there slightly watching all the hard-working people. It was exciting to witness such massive developments in electricity generation that aim for a greener and cleaner planet. However, I was dismayed that HPC would be around for only sixty or a maximum of eighty years once commenced. The plant is running late on the earlier planned dates. One of the reasons apart from COVID, was the skill gaps. The people who built the previous plants left the industry or are no more and to employ or train people to such high standards took years. I pondered the amount of hard work and money invested globally, locally, and in front of my eyes to build, operate, and decommission this and many such plants. All this will be wasted if, we the people, don't show consideration for the energy we use each day. On my way back, I questioned as to why do we need so much power at all. Is our addiction to fast and furious data, cars, and food putting pressure on generating more energy faster and cheaper? Is this anticipation of clean power at the cost of our planet?