EDF received the green light from the ASN on Monday at 5pm to launch “the first nuclear fission” early in the evening. The reactor should be connected to the network by the end of autumn.
This is a historic moment!As we speak, the Flamanville teams are about to launch the divergence (first nuclear fission, editor’s note). EDF received the green light from the ASN at 5 p.m. this Monday. The night teams, which start at 9 p.m., will initiate the nuclear reaction.“, declared Régis Clément, deputy director of the nuclear production division, shortly before 9 p.m. this Monday evening.
For several months, the Flamanville EPR has been going through a series of key stages. Commissioning authorisation granted by the nuclear safety authority, fuel loading carried out at the beginning of May. On Friday 30 August, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) received EDF’s request to carry out the “divergence”. France has not experienced such an operation for 25 years, with the start-up of the Civaux plant (Vienne). All that was missing was the green light from the ASN for this historic milestone to be reached. And when it is at 25% of its power, the EPR will deliver its first electrons to the French electricity grid.
Since May, all the tests have been carried out to make the reactor ready to diverge. The entire regulatory test program has been carried out. 300 to 400 safety criteria are checked for a reactor in operation, and for a new reactor, 1,500 points are checked, with an in-depth analysis of each of these tests.
The reactor will be connected to the grid at the end of autumn
Since Monday 9 p.m. and for several dozen hours, operations will be launched to start nuclear fission, representing 1 to 2% of the reactor’s power. It will take several weeks before the conditions for connecting the reactor to the network are reached. This phase, called coupling, should be carried out towards the end of autumn – and no longer in the summer as hoped at the beginning of the year. At that time, it will be at 25% of its power, which is 1600 megawatts. 100% will be reached “in several months. There are still many overall tests, we have not set a date“A step-by-step power ramp-up will be carried out to demonstrate that the reactor complies with safety requirements.
This final straight line will not have been easy. Each threshold was subject to a new delay, of a few weeks, days or hours, depending on the operations. The divergence threshold was expected at the beginning of July.It’s as if all the difficulties that can be encountered when starting a reactor had come together in Flamanville…. But we’re managing“, he slipped into the Figaro a familiar with the case at the beginning of August.All the tests must be carried out in accordance with what was planned, if there are any deviations, they must be analyzed point by point. We don’t give up. And there are some hazards that have led us to a certain number of additional operations. Finally, we have moved from a construction phase to an operational phase, with additional requirements that the teams have had to integrate.“, explains Régis Clément.
The EPR will have to operate for a first complete cycle, approximately 18 months, at full power, before stopping for a complete inspection and the replacement of its reactor vessel cover requested by the ASN. The current cover will therefore be replaced as a precaution. The operation has been scheduled in this way and aims to “have a compliant cover for the entire life of the reactor. This is not a defective cover, but a preventive replacement“, adds Régis Clément.
A construction site that has accumulated delays
Finally, a drop in the ocean of difficulties that the construction site has encountered. The latest of EDF’s nuclear reactors on French soil is 12 years behind schedule and has exceeded its budget by more than 10 billion euros to reach 13.2 billion. It also serves as a benchmark for EDF, which intends to draw on this experience, just like that which the group is acquiring abroad, notably at Hinkley Point in Great Britain, to better control the construction of the next six EPR 2s.We share our feedback. There is a huge effort on this point and on industrialization. We acquire skills“, reassures Régis Clément.
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