A spokesperson for the Office for Nuclear Regulation today said: “Our thoughts remain with the individual’s family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time.
“We have an established presence on site and have been supporting Avon and Somerset Police with their inquiries as appropriate.
“In an incident such as this, the police have initial ‘primacy’ and are currently leading the investigations on site.
“This lead role may be passed over to ONR in due course but the timescales for this can vary and that decision rests with Avon and Somerset Police. We have formed a specialist investigation team and have commenced our inquiries in parallel with the police.
“It is very early days in our understanding of this incident and it is important to understand that investigations of this nature take time.
“As this is a live investigation, we will not be commenting further so as not to prejudice those inquiries.
“We are in discussion with NNB GenCo HPC regarding the restart of limited construction work on the site and it has been confirmed that main contractors BYLOR will not be recommencing work at this time.
“We will independently assess NNB GenCo HPC's readiness to recommence BYLOR construction activity and expect this to be in a controlled manner, subject to robust scrutiny by NNB’s executive team, and evidenced based.
“We will maintain a presence during the coming weeks to gain evidence of the safe management of activities on site and the enhanced safety measures that are being put in place.”