Chernobyl ‘dark legacy’ sees a new UK nuclear power plant being ‘built to withstand plane strikes’ | TV & radio | Showbiz & TV

The nuclear power plant, named Hinkley Point C, is the first in the UK in 20 years and, when completed in 2026, will provide around six million households with low-carbon electricity. The controversial EDF Energy. Costs up to £ 23 billion The project is currently under construction in Somerset and could provide up to seven percent of all UK electricity in the future. Last night it was featured in a new BBC documentary – “Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station” – which went behind the scenes to capture the action for over two years.

And the series explained to viewers how their core – which converts the nuclear energy in uranium atoms into electrical energy – is protected.

Spokeswoman Priyanga Burford said: “The containment structures will protrude from the center of the nuclear island.

“The worker first has to assemble a robust inner lining made of huge steel rings. The reactor will be inside.

“Five rings make up the lining. They are closed with a steel dime and must be welded airtight.

“The workers will then cover the lining with a layer of concrete to form the interior walls.

“Next, they’re going to build a super-strong, 1.8-meter-thick outer shell to protect the entire structure.”

Ms. Burford explained to the audience why the utmost care must be taken to protect it.

She added, “It has to be tough enough to withstand the impact of an airplane.

“An air gap is pressurized between the inner and outer walls to prevent radioactive substances from escaping in the event of an accident.

“Both containment structures must be engineered with the utmost precision to ensure that they remain completely airtight.

“A tiny gap, only a millimeter wide, could allow radioactive material to escape from the inner casing, the first line of defense in the event of an accident.

“The worst nuclear accident in history occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.”

Former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev previously stated that the terrible accident was “perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union”.

And it seems that its effects can still be felt today.

Ms. Burford continued: “Unlike Hinkley Point C, the Chernobyl reactors were not housed in containment.

“When Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 exploded, it released a deadly cloud that contained 400 times more radioactive material than the Hiroshima bomb.

“The accident killed around 30 workers and caused the radioactive fallout to spread across Europe.

“The disaster turned an area larger than Lancashire into a no-go area that is still banned 35 years later.

“Its dark legacy is putting pressure on precision engineering in new factories like Hinkley Point C.”

The price of Hinkley’s electricity was set at £ 92 per megawatt hour in a so-called “strike price” and rose with inflation.

That won’t exceed that limit even if the cost of building Hinkley Point C goes up.

However, critics have indicated that Hinkley’s energy will be expensive.

The most recent offshore wind farms have agreed on base prices of around 40 pounds per megawatt hour.

Roy Pomfrey, who is a member of the Stop Hinkley campaign, told the BBC: “This increase is just proof that EDF did a complete pig’s ear with their calculations from the start.

“If we put the money into renewable energies right from the start, we would already have a return on investment.

“Renewable energy is already half as expensive as Hinkley, and while Hinkley is only getting more expensive, the cost of renewable energy will only go down.”

You can see ‘Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station’ on BBC iPlayer.