D-day for the nuclear reactor, which must be connected to the network this Friday

The operation of the reactor “will be marked by different power levels, until the summer of 2025, which will conclude the testing phase”, according to EDF. The reactor must then operate “at 100% power until the first scheduled shutdown for maintenance and fuel reloading called Complete Visit 1,” EDF said, without giving a precise date. It is therefore not quite the end, but at the very least an outcome for a project which is 12 years behind the initial schedule due to numerous technical setbacks. These caused the deadlines and the bill to explode, now estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, or four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.

First since 1999

In 2020, the Court of Auditors estimated it at 19 billion, including “additional financing costs”. To mark the event, EDF has planned a press conference in the afternoon in Paris. Paradoxically, the arrival on the network of this 1,600 MW reactor, the most powerful in the French fleet, comes at a time when the country’s electricity consumption is down compared to the years before Covid-19, order of 6%. “Electricity is available, let’s use it,” said EDF CEO Luc Rémont last week, against a backdrop of crisis in the industry, particularly the automobile industry, and the shutdown of electricity. electrification of uses.

It has been a quarter of a century since France, the country with the most nuclear power plants per capita, had started a new reactor, since 1999 with nuclear reactor 2 at Civaux, in Vienne. In addition to the complexity of the project, the long pause in the construction of new reactors in France is singled out by experts, for whom it has caused a loss of skills in the sector, partly explaining the setbacks encountered on this colossal project.

Six new EPR2 reactors?

And what’s next? Emmanuel Macron has decided to relaunch civil nuclear power in France, by ordering six EPR2 reactors (and eight additional optional ones) from the energy company, but the budgetary framework is long overdue for this project, which is all the more pharaonic since EDF, held in 100% by the State, is heavily in debt. The lack of political visibility does not help matters, according to the newspaper Les Échos, which affirms that, according to several sources, the board of directors of the energy company voted on Wednesday, in the 2025 budget, a reduction in the The envelope dedicated to preparatory work for future EPR2, from 2 billion euros to a range of 1.1 to 1.3 billion euros. Information confirmed by an internal source at EDF, but which management refutes.