VALE RNLI services had to assist in someone getting airlifted from a rig that’s helping build Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Plant.

On April 24, Barry Dock’s all-weather lifeboat was on stand-by in the nuclear power station’s “exclusion zone” as a casualty was airlifted from the rig.

The power plant is located on the coast of the Bristol Channel just down from Weston-super-Mare.

A spokesperson for Barry Dick RNLI said of the incident: “At 12.26am this morning (April 24), Barry Dock all-weather lifeboat Inner Wheel II was tasked to launch to support a medical evacuation from a rig inside of the Hinkley Nuclear Power Station exclusion zone.

“Alongside our colleagues at RNLI Lifeboats at Burnham-on-Sea who were also tasked, we stood off supporting Rescue 187 while they winched a paramedic onto the rig and to then extract and airlift the casualty who was taken to hospital.

“Returning back to station just before 3.00am, it proves that working and training together continually helps save lives.”

Barry And District News: The rig in the Bristol channel where the casualty was airliftedThe rig in the Bristol channel where the casualty was airlifted (Image: EDF Energy)

The rig, in the Bristol Channel, is assisting in building the power plant.

It previously helped in building the power station’s cooling water system.

Structures weighing 5,000-tonnes were lowered onto the seabed in 2022 to help circulate water to the two nuclear reactors.