The maintenance shutdown since January 10th of reactor 2 at the Flamanville power plant in the English Channel has been extended for about three months until October 15th, according to EDF, which operates the plant recently. called to order by the nuclear policeman. "To date, the restart is scheduled for 15/10/19," said the press service of the company.
This ten-year visit to reactor 2 mobilized 1,700 employees of subcontracting companies in addition to the 780 employees of EDF and the 377 employees of subcontractors "normally present on the site", according to the company. In April, EDF indicated that the shutdown should last 130 working days, or six months, for a restart in early July.
Since the beginning of the year, the plant has announced four new significant events, level 1
Completed in January, the 10-year inspection of Flamanville's other reactor, reactor 1, lasted nearly 10 months (from April 6, 2018 to January 27, 2019), while it also lasted six months. "The Flamanville power plant is experiencing a period of strong industrial activity since mid 2018 with the completion of the third ten-yearly inspections of its two reactors, each of which has more than 20,000 maintenance activities," EDF said on Friday. "Impacted by several complex technical hazards, the timetable for the completion of this industrial program led to the superimposition of the two ten-year visits," the company added.
On Thursday, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) announced that it had convened on 4 July the director of the plant to ask him to strengthen the control of the operating activities. Since the beginning of the year, the station has announced four new significant events, Level 1 (on the international scale of Ines nuclear incidents, graduated from 0 to 7). For 2018, she displays 5 level 1 and 32 level 0.
The Flamanville nuclear power plant is composed of two 1300 MWe reactors commissioned in 1985 and 1986. The EPR-type reactor 3, under construction, is not concerned by the July 4th hearing or the significant events mentioned. .