2024-09-02 20:19:07
New delays for the Flamanville EPR: EDF announced on Monday that it will have to wait another three months to see its new reactor supply power to the grid, which will not receive its first electrons until “late autumn”, while until now electricians were counting on the end of summer.
The energy company also announced that it has received approval from the Agency for Safety of Nuclear (ASN) to produce the first electrons for the EPR, 12 years later than initially planned.
But the “coupling”, that is to say the network connection operation that will allow French households to benefit from the energy of the most powerful reactor (1,600 MW), the 57th on the complex, still has to wait.
“A testing program capable of reaching a generation level of 25% will be implemented,” during which the EPR “will be connected to the national grid for the first time and then generate electricity,” with a deadline “expected” by the end of autumn 2024, the organization said in a press release.
Nevertheless, the first nuclear fission chain reaction should occur this Tuesday: “The night team, which finally attacks their workstation at 9:00 p.m., will launch the physical operation” that will put the reactor in a state of “starting and maintaining this reaction stable,” Régis Clément, deputy director of the French group’s nuclear production department, told the press.
“We are talking about a coupling in late autumn because we have a fairly substantial testing programme ahead of us,” said Mr Clement, who announced a “phased” increase in testing before the nuclear heart fails to “show its white claws”.
EDF CEO Luc Rémont announced that the divergence was “imminent” in early July as an important step towards starting operations at the reactor. Clement said if it only started on Monday it was because the Flamanville team had encountered “uncertainties” that had led to “a certain number of additional actions” during the summer.
Clement said the previously announced plan to have full power generation by the end of the year would take “several months”, but he did not give a new date.
– Significant increase in production of existing fleet –
If EDF still gets the “start-up” license from the ASN to start operations and take a new crucial step, it would be another setback for a project that is already 12 years behind schedule for this new pressurized water reactor, the fourth of its type to be installed in the world.
Although President Emmanuel Macron has decided to restart nuclear power, ordering six EPR2 reactors from energy companies (with eight more optional reactors), the start-up of the Flamanville EPR, even if it was decided long ago, is highly symbolic in terms.
In addition to the ASN authorization, another piece of good news comes from the existing fleet: EDF has significantly increased its nuclear power production estimate for 2024, which is now between 340 and 360 TWh, compared with the initially planned range of 315 to 345 TWh, an increase that excludes the Flamanville EPR.
“The performance of the other 56 reactors is better than what we have integrated,” Mr Clément declared, so “EPR production will arrive extra”.
“+Corrosion+ documentation is less sensitive than expected,” he added. “The revision of the 2024 nuclear production estimate is based on the improvement of the unit outage performance, the control related to stress corrosion documentation and industrial control at the repair site, and the absence of major climate disasters in the summer,” EDF press release.
The numerous setbacks affecting the EPR site (cracks in the slab concrete, anomalies in the tank steel and welding defects at the containment crossings) have caused costs to soar, with EDF now estimating the cost at €13.2 billion, four times the initial estimate of €3.3 billion.
The Court of Auditors estimated it at $19 billion for 2020, including “additional financing costs.”
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