EDF says it is “mobilized” so that the EPR nuclear reactor under construction in Flamanville (Manche) can supply electricity in 2023. “All our teams are mobilized to load the fuel at the end of 2022” into the reactor and “so that the first megawatt be produced on the network in 2023 ”, declared David Le Hir, the director of the completion of this project at EDF during a local information commission (CLI) in Les Pieux, in which Greenpeace France also participated.

In Civaux (Vienne), the current arrived on the network "four and a half years" after the start of the reactor, said Yannick Rousselet, in charge of nuclear issues for the environmental protection NGO.

“2023, I don't believe it for a second.

The people who are in charge of the EPR are rather talking about 2025, ”added the activist to the press.

Cumulative problems

During the meeting, various problems were discussed, including the most recent, that on the connections (part of a pipe that connects it to another or to a receptacle). In October, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) gave “agreement in principle” to the solution proposed by EDF. But "there is a complete file which remains to be transmitted to ASN (...) We are not yet in the authorization of implementation", underlined the head of the ASN division in Caen, Adrien. Sleeve, at the meeting.

Another point raised: an incident which occurred last June on one of the EPR reactors in Taishan (China).

David Le Hir did not know this Thursday if it could have "an impact" on Flamanville.

According to Yannick Rousselet, "several dozen" fuel rods broke in Taishan.

However, “it is the same type of fuel built by the same operator” as for Flamanville.

This possibly “blocking” point is being investigated by ASN.

Problems with a pressurizer are also being investigated.

The EPR site is ten years behind schedule.

Its cost rose to 12.4 billion according to EDF, 19 billion according to the Court of Auditors.

The only EPR plant in operation in the world, at Taishan, resolved in July to shut down one of its two reactors.

Economy

Nuclear: The State authorizes EDF to operate the Flamanville EPR in the English Channel

Planet

Flamanville EPR: "There is no more margin" for start-up at the end of 2022, according to ASN

  • EDF

  • Greenpeace

  • EPR

  • Nuclear

  • Flamanville

  • Economy

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print