LATEST facts and figures show Hinkley Point C is forging ahead, with around 3,000 workers on site every day and contracts worth £465 million already agreed with Somerset and South West companies.

This year will see the start of projects including building the pre-stressing gallery, the base of the first of the main Unit 1 reactor buildings; the Unit 1 pumping stations, to supply cooling water for the reactor turbines; over 11 km of cooling water intake and outtake tunnels, linked to the Bristol Channel; and continuation of construction of a 500 metre jetty for delivery of aggregates.

A host of work projects are currently under way, and ... EDF says 25,000 employment opportunities will be created during construction, with 5,600 people employed on site at its peak.

There will also be a large number of indirect employment opportunities, typically a further 40 per cent of the total, and almost 4,000 local businesses are registered on the local supplier database.

It has been calculated by the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development that the project could bring £200m a year into the regional economy during peak construction, and £40m a year during the power station’s planned 60-year operation.

Almost £15m is being invested into the local area to improve education, training and skills, of which £6m will be for local colleges to develop skills for the construction and operation of Hinkley Point C.