Britain’s first new reactor since the 1990s takes shape in Somerset.
A small valley in Somerset is slowly disappearing, one dumper truck at a time. Seven months after Theresa May gave her blessing to the £18bn Hinkley Point C project, work is gathering pace on what will be Britain’s first new nuclear power station since the 1990s.
The once grassy valley, carrying the Holford stream towards the Bristol Channel, is being filled with earth and rubble excavated from the adjacent construction site.
Last month concrete pouring started on the first permanent structures: an 8km network of tunnels that will carry piping and cables around the site.
Hinkley is one of the biggest construction projects in Europe, with dozens of cranes, cement silos and giant earthmoving vehicles scattered across the scarred ground.