Video: Balfour Beatty installs six offshore liners at Hinkley Point C nuclear plant

UK-based civil engineering contractor Balfour Beatty has installed six offshore liners at the major new nuclear power station under construction at Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

The milestone comes as offshore works at Hinkley Point C near completion.

Installed up to two miles off the coast of the Bristol Channel, the six liners each weigh up to 270 tonnes and form part of the power station’s cooling system.

Balfour Beatty lowered the six vertical liners to depths of up to 25m below sea level through 40m steel casings placed in the seabed.

The lines will circulate 120,000 litres of water per second from the Bristol Channel to the power station through five miles of underground tunnels to cool the power station’s systems.

Each liner features a pre-installed isolation cap to allow access to the cooling water tunnels for the remaining construction works before being removed and stored for use in potential future tunnel maintenance works.

Balfour Beatty’s Hinkley Point C marine works project director Roger Frost said, “I am immensely proud of the progress we have made, and the depth and scale of this instalment demonstrates Balfour Beatty’s capability to deliver innovative solutions for critical infrastructure.”