After 17 years of construction, including 12 delays, the EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville (Manche), the most powerful reactor in France, was connected to the national electricity network on Saturday, announced the EDF group, with Emmanuel Macron welcoming “a great moment “.
“Saturday December 21, 2024 at 11:48 a.m., the Flamanville EPR was connected to the French electricity network and began to produce its first electrons. This is a historic event for the entire French nuclear industry. The last start-up of a reactor in France goes back to that of Civaux 2, 25 years ago,” indicated EDF CEO Luc Rémont, on the professional social network LinkedIn.
This connection is a “great moment”, reacted President Emmanuel Macron, in a message also posted on LinkedIn.
“Great moment for the country. One of the most powerful nuclear reactors in the world, the Flamanville EPR, has just been connected to the electricity network. Reindustrializing to produce low-carbon energy is ecology at home. “It strengthens our competitiveness and protects the climate,” said the Head of State.
This first connection of a new reactor in France since 1999 was initially planned for Friday morning, but had been postponed by several hours.
It had to be done at low load, at around 20% of the reactor power (1,600 megawatts), to check that “everything is fine” before carrying out additional tests to reach 100% power in the summer of 2025, the public company explained on Friday.
After the fuel loading carried out in May and the first nuclear reaction within the reactor at the beginning of September, coupling to the network is the third stage of entry into operation of Flamanville 3, a new generation pressurized water reactor which must supply approximately two million homes.
A first cycle of industrial activity of 18 months is expected, made up of production but with still numerous tests, in particular during the ramp-up.
– Six to 14 other EPRs –
This launch of a new design reactor, from the most nuclear-armed country in the world (per capita), was particularly anticipated at the end of a project launched at the end of 2007.
It comes 12 years late compared to the initial schedule due to technical hazards – welding defects, defects in the steel of the tank, etc. – between new design, complexity of the site but also loss of skills in the sector French nuclear power, explained according to experts by the pause observed by the country in nuclear construction.
With these delays, the bill for Flamanville 3 has exploded. It is now estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion. In 2020, the Court of Auditors estimated it at 19 billion, including “additional financing costs”.
The EPR (“European Pressurized Reactor”), a new generation pressurized water reactor, is the fourth of this type installed in the world (after two in China, one in Finland), and the 57th in the French nuclear fleet.
Born in 1992 from a joint venture between the French group Framatome (now Areva) and the German Siemens, it received a first official green light from France in 2004.
The country, after having subsequently attempted a pause in the use of civil atoms, decided in 2022, with President Emmanuel Macron, to relaunch the nuclear sector by ordering six new reactors from EDF (and eight additional ones as an option).
But the budgetary framework is long overdue for this project, which is all the more difficult given that the energy company EDF, 100% owned by the French State, is heavily in debt.
The lack of political visibility does not help matters, according to the economic daily Les Echos. According to this newspaper, which mentions several sources, the EDF board of directors voted for 2025 to reduce the envelope dedicated to preparatory work, which thus goes from 2 billion euros to a range of 1.1 to 1 .3 billion.
Information confirmed to AFP by an internal source at EDF, but which the group's management refutes. This 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.
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