a start despite gray areas

Tuesday May 7, 2024, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has given its agreement so that theEPR de Flamanville is put into service, that is to say so that it receives its first load of fuel. After seventeen years of a project which turned into an ordeal and dizzying cost slippages – 19.1 billion euros instead of the 3.3 initially planned – the most powerful nuclear reactor in France should be connected to the network this summer. According to La Presse de la MancheEmmanuel Macron in person should come and attend the “ Beginning phase » and a launch evening would be scheduled at the Cité de la mer in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

Twelve years late in lighting, it is a priori difficult to speak of a rushed start. “ There are still small things that leave us a little skeptical »tells Reporterre Guy Vastel, member of the Association for the Control of Radioactivity in the West (Acro) and of the Local Information Commission (CLI) from Flamanville. At the heart of its concerns: the choice ofEDF not to replace the defective lid of the tank of theEPR before its commissioning, but at the end of the first operating cycle at the end of 2025. This decision involves the exposure of workers to additional radioactivity and additional radioactive waste to be managed. This, while the new tank cover must be delivered at the end of summer 2024, around the same time as the connection of theEPR to the network.

The fear of irradiation

Let’s rewind. At the end of 2014, Areva (since renamed Orano) discovered carbon concentration anomalies in the tank and the cap forged in its Creusot factory. This defect “ reduces the toughness of steel and increases the risk of rapid crack propagation »explained in 2017 to Reporterre Jean-Christophe Niel, director general of the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). A defect that is all the more worrying as this part constitutes the heart of the reactor, within which the very dangerous atomic reaction takes place. “ The tank helps contain the radioactive material in the reactor core. The integrity of this part is so essential that its breakage is not even studied in safety scenarios, as it would be so unthinkable »specified Mr. Niel.

In 2018, following numerous additional tests, theASN however authorized the commissioning and use of the tank, and required the change of its cover, crossed by multiple tubes, before December 31, 2024. At the time, the commissioning of theEPR was scheduled for October 2019. Following new schedule slippages, theASN modified this decision in May 2023 and authorized the use of the cover until “ the shutdown of the reactor during which the first complete requalification of the primary circuit is carried out »that is to say after the first operating cycle of the reactor.

The start of theEPR with a defective tank cover is therefore completely legal and permitted. But this industrial choice outrages Gilles Reynaud, president of the Ma Zone controlled association and former employee of Orano. “ For me, we could wait. We wait for the lid to be clean, we change it. Better to do it now than in a year and a half with a reactor that will work »he judges, estimating that “ change this tank cover [avant le démarrage du réacteur] would be respectful for stakeholders and populations ».

Contacted by Reporterre, EDF has confirmed in writing the delivery of the new cover “ at the end of summer 2024 ». “ The new cover will then be equipped on site and checked for several months in order to be ready for installation during the first scheduled shutdown for maintenance. », he clarified. On the other hand, the electrician was not very talkative about the concrete differences in working conditions between a cover replacement site “ healthy »before commissioning the reactor, and its replacement after irradiation.

“ Limit this exposure of workers to the minimum possible »

“ The intervention conditions are different, since the tank cover will be irradiated and will therefore generate exposure of workers to ionizing radiation, for his part wrote theASN has Reporterre. EDF studied the intervention conditions so as to limit this exposure of workers to the minimum possible. This evaluation and the sufficiency of the provisions planned to limit the exposure of workers are the subject of an instruction by theASN. » In its decision of May 2023, theASN evaluated the additional collective dose induced by replacing the cover after commissioning of the reactor at 200 H.mSv [1]. A supplement “ of the same order of magnitude as that of other operations to replace equipment in the main primary circuit », she specifies. Contacted, the CGT de Flamanville did not wish to answer our questions.

Another problem: an irradiated tank cover taken out of the containment of its reactor instantly transforms into radioactive waste. To manage it, theASN asked to EDF to construct a special building on the site of theEPR of Flamanville, where to store it before sending it to the Aube storage center [2]. This project must be carried out in 2024, specified EDF has Reporterre. The latter, however, did not answer questions on the dimensions of this work, nor on the duration and cost of the project. Gilles Reynaud, for his part, thinks he has an idea of ​​the type of building to which it can be related. “ When steam generators in the existing fleet were replaced, sarcophagi were built in the power stations to store them. These are buildings with significant thicknesses of concrete »he describes.

Getting started to reassure buyers

For what EDF did he, despite the difficulties that this entails, choose to start theEPR before changing the cover ? “ I understand your questions, but I will not have any more details to give you on this aspect. », replied the communications department. For a long time, the electrician hoped to escape this change. In 2017, it announced an international call for tenders to develop a method for controlling the lid, and thus avoid a long process (it takes between 4 and 9 months to replace a lid, and this time can lengthen in case of problem) and expensive ; “ a range of 100 million euros »had assessed the director of the Flamanville 3 projectEDF of the time. “ It is a choice ofEDF »for his part respondedASN. In its decision of May 2023, it indicated that “ replacing the vessel cover before commissioning of the reactor would lead to this being postponed by approximately one year ».

For Guy Vastel and Gilles Reynaud, it is clear: EDF and the government could not afford another delay in delivery of theEPR from Flamanville. “ It’s political. We need to start this reactor. We feel that. We start and then we will see »says Guy Vastel. “ With the delay that has occurred, we can understand the interest, the challenge for France is to show that it masters nuclear power in order to launch itself into future EPR »agrees Gilles Reynaud.

Neither EDF nor theASN did not comment on the subject. But the context is enlightening. In February 2022, Emmanuel Macron announced the construction of at least six new EPR In France. France seeks to sell its reactors abroad — on April 30, EDF announced that it had submitted an updated offer to the Czech Republic for the construction of up to four standard reactors EPR. But the way of the cross continues for EDF. Initially estimated at 18 billion pounds, its two EPR of Hinkley Point in Great Britain could cost 31 to 35 billion pounds and not be put into service before 2029 or even 2031, instead of the end of 2025.

The program of six EPR2 does not look very good: its cost, initially estimated at 51.7 billion euros, was reassessed in March to 67.4 billion euros. The bill will probably exceed 100 billion euros, according to Greenpeace. A US analysis published in April roundly judges this project “ unrealistic ». Under these conditions, and while France is fighting at the European level, with French electro-intensive companies and even Switzerland to finance this program, it seems important that theEPR de Flamanville is finally starting to reassure about the prospects of this technology.