Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station

Episode
Episode 1
Broadcast Info
2021 (58 mins)
Description
With unique access, this brand new series follows the construction workers at Hinkley Point C, Britain’s biggest and newest nuclear power station being built in a remote corner of the Somerset countryside. With a price tag of over twenty-two billion pounds and covering an area the size of 250 football pitches, this extraordinary construction site is one of the largest in Europe, and the UK’s first new nuclear power station for a generation. This series follows the engineers, technicians, and the behind the scenes staff who are under pressure to keep the project on track, including building the mammoth foundations for the two nuclear reactors, excavating 3.5km cooling water tunnels out under the Bristol Channel, and constructing the critical airtight inner steel lining designed to contain any radioactive material in the unlikely event of a meltdown. Being built in the shadow of the catastrophic nuclear disasters at the Chernobyl and Fukushima power plants, the team overseeing this high-profile and controversial project must ensure every element of the construction is perfect. Adding to the pressure on engineers’ shoulders is the decision to use a new kind of nuclear reactor - the first of its type in the UK. But issues with Hinkley Point C’s sister plants being built in France and Finland lead to concerns over the design, with this new model of reactor yet to operate successfully anywhere in Europe. In this episode, we follow Mike Murphy, one of Hinkley’s Area Construction leads, as he oversees a critical operation to create one of the two giant super-strong nuclear reactor foundations. Mike and his team must undertake a 3-day continuous concrete pour to create the perfect base for one of the two reactors to sit on. Once they start pouring the special concrete mix they cannot stop, or the foundation could be ruined setting the project back by months. If they succeed, they will have completed the UK’s largest reinforced concrete pour ever. Tunnel Delivery lead Rob Bermingham is tasked with overseeing the construction of the first of three Nuclear Quality cooling water tunnels, a mammoth 3.5km-long tunnel that stretches out under the Bristol Channel and will eventually provide the 120,000 litres of seawater per second needed to cool the steam produced by the nuclear reactors. In this episode, we follow Rob and the team as they undertake the complex logistical challenge of delivering pieces of the giant Tunnel Boring Machine, under a police escort, along the narrow country lanes to the construction site. In a special weather-proof workshop French Production Manager Nicolas Mathis leads a team constructing a 153-tonne section of the critical inner containment liner, the first line of defence in the event of a nuclear accident. It must be built with extreme precision and welded airtight. In this episode we follow the team as they undertake a special operation to x-ray the latest work, looking inside the welding for any minute defects that could allow potentially deadly radioactive material to leak out in the unlikely event of a disaster. A discovery is made that forces Nicolas and the team to make repairs. Next door to the vast construction site is the operational nuclear power station of Hinkley Point B. On top of the working reactor, we meet Station Director Peter Evans who takes us inside the control room simulator where we get a rare glimpse at the retro controls that operate the plant built in the 1970s. With this power station set to close in the coming years, we learn the staff are already preparing to transfer to the new Hinkley Point C when it opens. The episode ends as the tunnelling team attempt to fire up their new 130-metre-long tunnelling machine to commence digging for the very first time. A tense moment for the team that will start them on a year-long journey through the challenging, fractured ground beneath the Bristol Channel.
Genre
Engineering; Science; Technology

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/239116 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)