Hinkley Point visitor centre welcomes 100,000th guest

Celebrations were underway on Friday 12 April as Hinkley Point’s highly successful visitor centre reached a major milestone. 100,000 people have now visited the centre since it first opened its doors in 2012.

Now a familiar sight in Bridgwater’s Angel Place shopping centre, it has become extremely popular with local people of all ages and continues to be a ‘one stop shop’ for all EDF Energy enquiries and activities across Somerset.

The award winning facility offers a wealth of information and guidance on both Hinkley Point B and C sites, whilst also providing guided tours of both stations. The activities do not stop there with the staff regularly arranging and hosting special community-based events. They have supported everything from building interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects to ecology and environment education and community safety guidance in partnership with local partners.

Sherryl Sellick, visitor centre coordinator, said: “Since we opened the visitor centre, the community has made great use of the facility, either through wanting to know more information about nuclear power, raising a customer query, or supporting our special themed events programme, and we are looking forward to welcoming our next 100,000 visitors.”

Since the Hinkley Point visitor centre opened in December 2012, the visitor centre team has:

• Welcomed over 100,000 people into the visitor centre
• Organised over 1000 tours of Hinkley Point B and have taken over 16,500 people on a guided tour of the power station
• Organised over 300 tours of Hinkley Point C and have taken over 7,000 people on a guided tour of the new build site
• Visited over 60 schools and have spoken to over 3,500 school children
• Arranged over 100 special themed events in the visitor centre which have attracted nearly 35,000 people
• Dealt with over 5,000 customer service related enquiries and over 7,000 recruitment related enquiries
• Annually represented the company at The Royal Bath and West Show and have engaged with over 100,000 people