New reactor at Hinkley C

In Week 2, you heard that, at the moment, nuclear power provides up to 20%
of the electricity requirements of the UK. This is a large proportion, but many
of the UK’s power stations are old and will need replacing soon.

To address the energy shortfall that will occur from limitations on the use of fossil
fuels, a new nuclear power station in the UK was given the go ahead in 2013. The
power station, called Hinkley C, is being built at Hinkley Point, Somerset. On the
same site is Hinkley A, a decommissioned Magnox reactor and Hinkley B an AGR
reactor that has been running since the early 1970s. Once built, it is hoped that
the two new reactors will provide about seven per cent of the UK’s electricity. They
are being built by a consortium led by EDF Energy and will be half owned by
Chinese investors.

Hinkley C will be a modern power station with significant differences to the older
reactors on the site, in both the design of the power station and the issue of
radioactive waste. Hinkley C’s reactors are the first to be built post-Fukushima and
their design takes into account lessons learned there and in other nuclear
incidents.

Some of the improvements are listed below.

The European pressurised reactors (EPRs) are an improvement on the

pressurised water reactor and a huge improvement on the old Magnox and
 AGR systems. THE EPRs will be more efficient in producing energy and so
need smaller amount of fuel which will reduce the risk of a major accident.

The floor of the reactors is on a base of 6m concrete with channels carved into
it. In the event of a meltdown, this should stop the molten core burning through
the floor and guard against leakage into environment.

Hinkley will have two concrete walls each over 1m thick. These are designed to
protect the reactors and even to withstand aircraft strikes!

In a direct response to the events at Fukushima and the importance of the

cooling systems to safety, there will be two extra back-up generators in widely
spaced, waterproof buildings.

In the next step hear about how the developments will also improve the
management of nuclear waste.

(Text: © The Open University)/Image: © Richard Baker, via Wikimedia

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HinkleyPointCoast.jpg), Commons
Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0))