EDF received the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority on Monday evening to produce its first electrons, while the Flamanville EPR construction site is 12 years behind schedule.
The Flamanville EPR is finally waking up: after a 12-year delay, the process leading to the first nuclear fission chain reaction has begun, EDF announced on the night of Monday to Tuesday, a few hours after indicating that it would be necessary to wait three more months to see its new reactor supplying the electricity network.
“The divergence phase has begun. This operation will make the reactor core beat for the first time,” EDF announced in a video published on X, specifying that “the divergence initiates the nuclear fission chain reaction.”
The energy company had announced earlier that it had received the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to start producing the first electrons for the EPR.
“Hazards” during the summer
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.
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“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.
“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”, Régis Clément, deputy director of the nuclear production division of the French group, previously indicated to the press, 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 Régis Clément. As for full power, previously announced by the end of the year, it will take “several months”, the deputy director of EDF’s nuclear production division, who did not give a new date.
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 fourth 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 though it was decided well before, has a highly symbolic dimension.
Between 340 and 360 TWh expected in 2024
In addition to the ASN authorization, 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 Blainville EPR. “The other 56 reactors are performing better than what we had integrated,” declared Régis Clément, so much so that the production of “the EPR will arrive 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 linked to the stress corrosion issue, and the absence of major climatic hazards during the summer,” according to the EDF press release.
The many 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 containment vessel crossings) 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 had estimated it at 19 billion, including in particular the “additional financing costs”.
