Balfour Beatty has reached a milestone at their Avonmouth facility, located in the outer-suburb of Bristol which also hosts the English city’s port. The British multinational infrastructure group unloaded elements of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant’s cooling system, for transportation, in collaboration with Mammoet.

The Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant has been under construction since March 2017, in Somerset, England. It is the first nuclear plant to be built in England in 20 years, and will provide low-carbon electricity for about 6 million homes. The construction site is approximately 70 kilometres from the Avonmouth Docks, along the coast, and to the South. Once completed, it will be a two-unit, 3,200 Megawatt, Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) nuclear power plant. The project, which is  financed by EDF Energy, a British subsidiary of Electricité de France,  and the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), is currently slated to be commissioned in June 2027.

Balfour Beatty transported the first intake and outfall heads, which will form an integral part of the station’s cooling system, in collaboration with the Bristol Port Authority, as well as  supply chain partner Mammoet. As the components weighed over  8,000 tonnes, a combination of Mammoet machinery and digital technology was used to maximise efficiency. The heads will now be transported via barge, before being lowered into their permanent positions next month.