Paris (AFP)
The audit report on the setbacks of the EPR Flamanville (Manche) handed Monday to the government drew a black balance sheet of this project, "a failure for EDF" and the nuclear industry, leading the Minister of Economy to ask to EDF an "action plan" under a month.
The difficulties that the electrician has on this site, whose cost has tripled to 12.4 billion euros and the delays are linked, are due on the one hand to the "unrealistic" initial estimates but also to a loss of skills in the sector and a lack of "quality culture", said Jean-Martin Folz, former boss of the PSA automobile group, presenting his report to Bercy.
He notably pointed out the "technical and industrial failures" observed on this project, in particular in welding, one of the last incidents of the EPR concerning the poor quality of certain welds that EDF is forced to take back.
However, he considered that the EPR had "demonstrated the relevance" of its design and that in order to restore the industrial quality of the nuclear sector, EDF had to face an investment and recruitment effort that would only be possible if State posts "stable long-term programs for new reactor construction and maintenance of existing fleet".
Faced with this finding, and judging that it highlighted "an unacceptable lack of rigor", the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire asked EDF to put in place an "action plan" within a month to put the nuclear industry back to the "highest standards", with a milestone expected "end of 2020".
This action plan will have to deal with several points highlighted by the report, in particular the governance of major projects, the improvement of coordination between EDF and Framatome, returned to the fold of the electrician after the restructuring of Areva, and "the establishment of responsibilities" with a possible "reorganization of the teams", detailed the minister.
On this point, the Minister for the ecological transition Élisabeth Borne reminded that such a decision could not intervene before the effective start of the reactor, not before the end of 2022 according to the new EDF calendar.
© 2019 AFP