The turbo-alternator of the Flamanville nuclear power plant, April 25, 2024 in La Manche (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
EDF had announced that it would be the last day of autumn, it could ultimately be the first of winter: 12 years late, the first connection to the electricity network of the new generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville is expected at best. during the night from Friday to Saturday.
This historic connection, the first of a new reactor in France since 1999, was initially planned for Friday at 10:00 a.m. before being postponed twice, before 8:00 p.m. then before 11:00 p.m.
But in a message sent to the wholesale energy market on Friday evening, EDF finally announced an extension of the preliminary maintenance operation to be completed by Saturday 10:00 a.m., which implies a coupling hoped for by the operator at night.
“Certain operations have led to taking back a little margin and shifting” the connection, Régis Clément, deputy director of the Nuclear Production division at EDF, explained on Friday afternoon during a press briefing.
He was then confident of obtaining coupling just before the end of autumn threshold to which EDF had committed in September, but did not completely exclude that this would happen at night.
EDF employees in front of a dome of the Flamanville nuclear power plant in Manche, April 25, 2024 (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
The operation must be carried out at very low load, having reached a level of “around 20%” of its power, he specified. This will make it possible to check that “everything is fine” before carrying out “additional tests”.
“Between 10 and 15 shutdowns and restarts are scheduled” then to test the reactor, which will reach 100% power “in the summer of 2025”, during its first 18-month industrial activity cycle, he said. noted.
Then, probably in spring 2026, there will be a first scheduled outage for maintenance and fuel reloading called Complete Visit 1″, according to EDF.
The connection to the network marks a culmination for this 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.
In 2020, the Court of Auditors estimated it at 19 billion, including “additional financing costs”.
Paradoxically, the arrival on the network of this reactor of more than 1,600 MW, 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 the backdrop of a crisis in the industry, particularly the automobile industry, and the shutdown of electricity. electrification of uses.
– First new reactor since 1999 –
It has been a quarter of a century since France, the country with the most nuclear power plants per capita, has 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.
Emmanuel Macron in front of an Arabelle nuclear turbine in the GE workshops in Belfort, since taken over by EDF, on the day of the announcement of the relaunch of civil nuclear power in France, February 10, 2022 (POOL / Jean-Francois Badias)
And what’s next?
Emmanuel Macron has decided to relaunch civil nuclear power in France, by ordering six EPR2 reactors (and eight additional ones as an option) 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 Echos. He 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 envelope dedicated to the preparatory work of the future EPR2, from 2 billion euros to a range of 1.1 to 1.3 billion euros.
Information confirmed to AFP by an internal EDF source, but which management refutes.
The Flamanville EPR swimming pool, before the start of fuel loading, April 25, 2024 in La Manche (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
The company affirms that the amount of investments is at this stage “not decided” and that it “will be examined later”, once all the terms of the program have been defined.
The start-up of the reactor, initiated on September 3, marked the beginning of its increase in power, which will allow it to be connected to the electricity network.
The EPR, a new generation pressurized water reactor, is the 4th of this type installed in the world (two in China, one in Finland, and one under construction in the United Kingdom), and the 57th in the French nuclear fleet. Ultimately, it should supply around two million homes with electricity.
