Somerset power plant Hinkley Point C has appointed its first station director. Nuclear engineer Nicola Fauvel will lead the project through commissioning and into operation.
She will return to the Bridgwater-based power station early next year after three years as plant manager and then station director at neighbouring Hinkley Point B.
During that time she led the team which defueled the station in preparation for handover to the Government organisation responsible for decommissioning.
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Ms Fauvel has worked in the civil nuclear industry for 26 years and she has held a number of technical, leadership and project manager roles, including spending 13 years as part of the Hinkley Point C project.
Her nuclear career began at Torness power station in Scotland and she has also worked for EDF - the owner of Hinkley Point C - in Paris on reactor design and at Flamanville in Normandy, where a sister EPR power station is now generating electricity.
She said: “I have loved leading the team at Hinkley Point B as custodians of the site as there is such a proud heritage and real sense of community.
"I am now excited and humbled to be taking on the challenge of preparing Hinkley Point C for generation. Building the right operational organisation is just as crucial as the fantastic engineering feats being achieved daily by the construction team.”
Stuart Crooks, Hinkley Point C’s chief executive, added: “Nicola’s leadership and experience on operating stations, as well as her previous experience of new nuclear projects, will be invaluable as we accelerate our commissioning phase.
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"Taking up the role now enables Nicola to build knowledge and evolve from pre-operations to an operational organisation that will be capable of generating into the next century.”
In June, US private capital group Apollo Global confirmed it was backing Hinkley Point C with a £4.5bn loan.
The loan will be provided as unsecured debt to EDF, the French state-owned energy firm delivering the project, at an interest rate of just under 7%.
The nuclear plant, which is set to provide six million British homes with zero-carbon electricity when finished, has been plagued by cost overruns and delays since it received government approval in 2016.
Originally, the project was expected to be completed by 2025 at a cost of around £18bn, but current estimates suggest the total cost could reach nearly £46bn, with a start date pushed back to 2029.
In July, a huge dome was lifted on to the second nuclear reactor at the power station. The 245-tonne dome was lifted into place by a giant crane - dubbed 'Big Carl' - and closed the 44-metre-high reactor building, which is now being fitted out internally.