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Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumConstruction Site Of Hinkley Point C Nuclear Plant In UK Overrun With Rats

Workers building the troubled Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset have raised concerns that the construction site is overrun by rats. The Unite and GMB trade unions are understood to have warned the developer, the French energy giant EDF, that urgent action is needed because the rodents are everywhere.
The growing vermin population has prompted fears over the health of the workforce building Britains first new nuclear power plant in a generation, which is running years late and billions of pounds over budget. A source on the site told the Observer: Theyre all over. You see them just sat there, looking at you. It is worse near the canteens, where I guess it started. But they are everywhere now.
A second source confirmed that the trade unions had broached the issue with EDF, describing the number of rats on the site as quite grim. The more men working on the site, the more rubbish on the site and the canteens are not clean either. It has just become worse over time, the source added.
Around 3,000 more jobs will be created at Hinkley Point over the next 18 months, with about 15,000 people in total expected to work on the site as construction reaches its peak. Once built, the plant will be capable of powering 6m British homes, contributing 7% of UK electricity needs.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/06/theyre-everywhere-workers-warn-of-rat-infestation-at-somerset-nuclear-plant
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Construction Site Of Hinkley Point C Nuclear Plant In UK Overrun With Rats (Original Post)
hatrack
Yesterday
OP
Maybe the rats are doing their part -- their own mass gathering -- to protest the construction
displacedvermoter
Yesterday
#1
In that case, the rats would be quite as stupid as human beings who protest nuclear plants, but not quite as deadly.
NNadir
Yesterday
#2
"Look at the roaches! Look at the god damned roaches!" Future War o the Worlds movie.
GreenWave
Yesterday
#3
displacedvermoter
(3,646 posts)1. Maybe the rats are doing their part -- their own mass gathering -- to protest the construction
of the nuke plant?
NNadir
(35,469 posts)2. In that case, the rats would be quite as stupid as human beings who protest nuclear plants, but not quite as deadly.
Opposing nuclear power plants kills people, and, since extreme global heating is killing a vast number of ecosystems, other species.
GreenWave
(10,930 posts)3. "Look at the roaches! Look at the god damned roaches!" Future War o the Worlds movie.
As we know they can survive.
Turbineguy
(38,946 posts)4. Rats chew into control system wiring.