New delay for the Flamanville EPR: EDF announced on Monday that it would have to wait three more months for its new reactor to power the electricity grid, which will not receive its first electrons before “the end of autumn”, whereas the electricity company had previously been counting on the end of summer.
The energy company announced at the same time that it had received the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to launch production of the first electrons for the EPR, twelve years behind the initial schedule.
But the “coupling”, or the operations of connection to the network which will allow French homes to benefit from the energy of the most powerful reactor (1,600 MW), the 57th in the park, will have to wait.
“A test program to reach a power level of 25% will be implemented”, a stage during which the EPR “will be connected to the national electricity grid for the first time and will then produce electricity”, a deadline “planned for the end of autumn 2024”, the group specified in a press release.
The first nuclear fission chain reaction should nevertheless occur as early as this Tuesday: “the night teams, who finally attack their workstation at 9:00 p.m., will initiate the physical action” which will bring the reactor to be “in this state of initiated and maintained stable nuclear reaction”, Régis Clément, deputy director of the French group’s nuclear production division, told the press.
The operation should “take around ten hours,” he said.
“To go to the coupling, we are talking about the end of autumn, because ahead of us, we have a fairly substantial programme of tests”, indicated Mr. Clément, who announced a rise “by successive stages”, before the nuclear core can “show its credentials”.
EDF CEO Luc Rémont had announced that the divergence, a major step in the reactor start-up operations, was “imminent” at the beginning of July. If it only began on Monday, it is because the Flamanville teams encountered “setbacks”, which led to “a certain number of additional operations” being carried out during the summer, according to Mr Clément.
As for full power, previously announced for the end of the year, it will take “several months”, according to Mr. Clément, who did not give a new date.
– Production of the existing fleet significantly increased –
Although EDF has nevertheless obtained the “go” from the ASN to launch operations and take a new crucial step, this is yet another setback for a project that is already 12 years behind schedule for this new pressurized water reactor, the 4th of this type installed in the world.
While President Emmanuel Macron has decided to relaunch nuclear power, by ordering six EPR2 reactors (and eight additional ones as an option) from the energy company, the start-up of the Flamanville EPR, even if it was decided well before, has a highly symbolic dimension.
In addition to the ASN authorisation, the other good news came from the existing fleet: EDF has significantly revised upwards its estimate of nuclear production for the year 2024, now between 340 and 360 TWh, compared to a range of 315 to 345 TWh initially planned, an increase not including the Flamanville EPR.
“The other 56 reactors are performing better than what we had integrated,” said Mr. Clément, so much so that the production of “the EPR will come in addition.”
“The +corrosion+ file was less sensitive than expected,” he added. “This revision of the nuclear production estimate for 2024 is based on the improvement in the performance of unit shutdowns, industrial control of inspections and repair sites related to the stress corrosion file, and the absence of major climatic hazards during the summer,” according to the EDF press release.
The numerous setbacks that have affected the EPR construction site (cracks in the concrete of the slab, anomalies in the steel of the tank, and welding defects on the crossings of the containment building) have caused the bill to explode, now estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.
In 2020, the Court of Auditors estimated it at 19 billion, including in particular the “additional financing costs”.
