THE first of Hinkley Point C’s two nuclear reactors has been built and is ready for delivery to the construction site on the West Somerset coastline.

It is the first to be built for a British power station in more than 30 years and is nearly 100 feet long and weighs 500 tonnes.

Teams have spent 80,000 engineering hours on its construction.

The ‘reactor pressure vessel’ is a high-strength steel cylinder which will contain the nuclear fuel and the chain reaction needed to make heat.

The heat is used to create high pressure steam for the world’s largest turbines.

Each of two ‘reactor pressure vessels’ at Hinkley C will help power about three million British homes.

They are designed to run continuously for 18 months at a time between refuelling.

The reactor has been built in France by Framatome, the same nuclear engineering company which built Britain’s last nuclear reactor for Sizewell B, Suffolk, in 1991.

Since it went into operation in 1995, the Sizewell B reactor has provided 247 TWH, which is enough to power every home in Britain for two-and-a-half years.

The centre of the reactor will have an average temperature of around 300°C and can withstand five times more pressure than a submarine at normal operating depths.

The building which will house the reactor is also taking shape at Hinkley Point.

Earlier this week, Big Carl, the world’s largest crane, lifted the final 38 feet tall prefabricated steel ring into place on unit one, which now stands 144 feet high.

The completion of the first reactor pressure vessel marks a major milestone in the construction of Hinkley Point C.

Together, the two nuclear reactors will offset 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the station's 60-year lifetime, helping to drive Britain toward net zero and providing stronger energy security.