In 2021, a first estimate amounted to 52 billion euros. Now, we are talking about around 70 billion euros, excluding financial costs. However, the cost of immobilizing capital can easily double the bill. To contain it, we must reduce the duration of construction sites. “The speed of construction of EPRs is a fundamental question”, recalled Luc Rémont, CEO of EDF, during a hearing at the National Assembly. This summer, he set a very ambitious objective: to build these EPR2s in 70 months, “between the first concrete and industrial commissioning. This will not be the case for the first, seeded, but as quickly as possible.
Gain 3 years on the calendar
EDF teams have until the end of the year to find solutions. The step is very high: 70 months (less than six years) instead of 105 months (nearly nine years) initially planned for the construction of the first EPR2 at Penly and 90 months for that of the sixth EPR2 at Bugey. It is therefore no longer 15 months that must be saved between the first and sixth EPR2, benefiting from feedback and optimization from one site to another, but 35, or three years! This is huge, especially since there is no guarantee that the target construction times for the EPR2 will be met.
“Globally, the average construction time is still around ten years,” recalls Mycle Schneider, nuclear analyst, who remains very doubtful, even if the Chinese announce less than six years for their new reactors. “EDF has lost all credibility regarding its ability to predict the duration of construction of a nuclear reactor”, he judges. The company has nevertheless already learned lessons from the delays at the Flamanville EPR construction site, the causes of which were highlighted in the 2019 Folz report commissioned by the previous CEO of EDF, Jean-Bernard Lévy.
A general maturity review
To meet costs, quality and deadlines, EDF has already decided to build the EPR2s in series and in pairs. He simplified the design by standardizing everything that could be. He also worked with his suppliers as part of the Excell quality plan. And its two subsidiaries, Framatome and Arabelle Solutions, will invest to adapt their industrial tools to mass production of steam generators and EPR2 turbocharger groups. Furthermore, in 2022, EDF created an “internal customer” position, entrusted to Nicolas Machtou, who had been sorely missed for Flamanville 3. Finally, on April 1, the company adopted a new organization of activities nuclear.
In November 2022, the government created an Interministerial Delegation for New Nuclear (Dinn), led by Joël Barre, former general delegate for armaments, which must ensure the supervision of project management over its entire public part. “Our mission is to ensure that the ERP2 program is carried out in the best possible conditions”, summarizes Jöel Barre, who wants to be reassuring. “The degression targeted by EDF, by announcing 70 months, corresponds to the orders of magnitude that can be encountered in mass industrial, armaments or space programs.”
Inspired by major arms and space programs, Dinn and EDF have also set up a general maturity review of the project, entrusted to a team of around fifteen external experts who worked from March 2023 to July 2024. Their first report in November 2023 notably concluded that the “basic design” was insufficiently mature to move on to the detailed design phase, i.e. the final construction plans. “The expert committee made 89 recommendations, all of which were accepted by Luc Rémont, in particular that of the establishment of a monitoring committee,” specifies Nicolas Machtou, director of the new nuclear program in France. In July, the second Guillou report gave the green light to launch the detailed plans, but called for regulatory security, the launch of a new nuclear program in France having to be the subject of a law which has still not been adopted. been voted on, and to define the method of financing.
A dedicated task force
In order to meet the 70 month challenge, “we created a task force a few months ago to look for good ideas, in other industries as well as abroad, and innovations, says Nicolas Machtou. EDF's supply chain teams have already visited China, where the Hualong reactor was built in 68 months.” A model from which the teams of Gabriel Oblin, the project manager, want to draw inspiration to optimize the organization of civil engineering and share good practices with contractors, starting with Eiffage, which won the civil engineering contract for Penly of 4 billion euros.
If the objective is also intended to be mobilizing, its feasibility remains uncertain. “We will say by the end of the year how we will achieve it,” assures the director of the new nuclear program France. Failing or pushing back the schedule is not an option anyway. But time is running out. The director of Dinn is waiting for the new costing from EDF this month to be able to audit it. “We are working to converge on a quote, a schedule and a financing model by the end of the year, explains Joël Barre. Ultimately, the cost of the electricity produced by the reactors depends on the construction time.” It is therefore also the maintenance of electro-intensive industries in the territory and the attractiveness of the France site which are at stake.
The EPR2, a simplified and standardized version of the Flamanville EPR
The Evolutionary Power Reactor 2 (EPR2) is a pressurized water nuclear reactor with a thermal power of 4590 MW convertible into 1670 MW electric. To be mass produced, save construction time and maintenance costs, its design has been simplified compared to the first EPRs built in China, France, Finland and the United Kingdom. For all buildings, the catalog of parts and components has been rationalized and standardized. It displays 571 valve references instead of 1309, 91 door references instead of 214, 257 piping templates instead of 836, 63 unclassified pumps instead of 800… For the components, as many welds as possible will be carried out. in the factory rather than on site.
The non-nuclear electrical auxiliary building is entirely modular and will be delivered to the sites already constructed. For the reactor building, the double EPR containment enclosure protecting the vessel and the four steam generators was replaced by a single, thicker enclosure, made of prestressed concrete with a metal liner. The dome is 70 meters high and 50 meters in diameter. The rooms around the reactor are larger, less compartmentalized and simpler in shape, with aligned walls to facilitate construction, their layout, as well as their operation with widened corridors. The components necessary for operational maintenance of the reactor have been removed.
You are reading an article from L'Usine Nouvelle 3736 – November 2024
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