The Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power station is one of the biggest and most technologically complex projects in Europe.

HPC is the first nuclear power station to be built in the UK in a generation, and its construction requires a highly skilled workforce and the very best construction and engineering solutions.

The HPC Project is located in Somerset, South West England, and will consist of two nuclear reactors capable of generating 3.2GW of low-carbon electricity.

The new power station is being constructed in the same area as the existing Hinkley Point A and B stations. The former has ceased operation for quite some time, while the latter is decommissioning in 2022.

Dextra was entrusted with the supply of mechanical splices of concrete reinforcement for parts of HPC, particularly the reactor’s aircraft impact protect shell.

More than 2.5 million Griptec couplers are supplied for the construction of HPC.

Griptec is designed to comply with the most stringent project specifications, and has proven to be a popular system of choice for EPR nuclear power stations, having been used for the construction of the Flamanville 3, Taishan 1, and Taishan 2 power stations.

The Griptec mechanical splice consists of two steel sleeves which are swaged onto the end of the reinforcing bars by a specific machine that was designed and patented by Dextra.

This swaging machine incorporates a systematic non-destructive pull test. Griptec is the only coupler system that provides an automatic quality control of each processed bar.

Besides Griptec couplers, Dextra is also supplying 3 million headed bars to the project. These are reinforcing bars that are bent on one side and fitted with an anchorage head on the other side and are used for the transverse reinforcement of concrete slabs, rafts, and walls. They allow a much faster and safer site installation than conventional double-bend bars.

When complete, HPC will provide low-carbon electricity for around six million homes.