AN improvement notice has been served by nuclear regulators on the owners of Hinkley Point C after an incident with a tower crane earlier this year.

A pin connecting two of the crane’s mast sections was found to have failed and evidence was seen of cracking within a mast section.

The faults were discovered during pre-use checks in February and reported under regulations covering ‘dangerous occurrences’.

Now, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has served an improvement notice on site licensee NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd (NNB GenCo) covering monitoring and management of tower cranes at Hinkley C.

It said the issue was identified before there was any broader failure of the crane, so there were no injuries to any workers.

Regulatory inquiries established a failure by NNB GenCo as the principal contractor to plan, manage, and monitor the construction phase and co-ordinate health and safety requirements specifically in relation to the maintenance and condition of tower cranes.

ONR principal inspector John McKenniff said: “While the observed damage did not result in any crane failure or collapse, this improvement notice was served to ensure that action is taken to prevent any similar occurrences in the future.

“We will monitor the actions of NNB GenCo and will consider taking further action if additional shortfalls are identified.”

Mr McKenniff said it was a conventional health and safety incident and not related to nuclear safety.

NNB GenCo Ltd was given until June 30 to comply with the requirements of the improvement notice.

A spokesperson for Hinkley C said: “We take safety issues very seriously and have already taken steps to address the issues identified.

“We continue to work closely with the ONR, as well as our trades union and contract partners with safety as our overriding priority and to enhance the high safety standards demanded by us across our construction site.”