after more than a decade of delay, the lessons of the Flamanville EPR on the verge of being connected to the electricity network

Nearly twelve years late and a bill of more than 19 billion euros, multiplied at least six times due to poor workmanship. “The construction of the Flamanville EPR will have accumulated so many additional costs and delays that it can only be considered a failure for EDF”already summarized the Folz report, a document submitted in October 2019, at the request of the national electrician, by Jean-Martin Folz, former boss of the PSA Peugeot Citroën automobile group.

After seventeen years and seventeen days of construction, and around ten postponements, the “failure” is now coming to an end. Friday December 20, the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) of the power plant located in the small Normandy town of Flamanville, in the Manche department, must finally be connected to the electricity network, EDF announced Wednesday December 18.

An event: it had been a quarter of a century since EDF’s French nuclear fleet had experienced a new coupling. Its 57^e pressurized water reactor in service (the third Flamanvillais) is now on the verge to provide electricity to homes and businesses. The current passing through the pylons of very high voltage lines, from the Cotentin peninsula.

You have 91.51% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.