In France, the construction of the EPR Flamanville 3, located in the English Channel, has a further delay of six months and a further increase in its cost of 500 million euros. Yet another setback for the French electrician, while the situation is tense on the electricity side in France, due to the shutdown of several of its reactors currently under maintenance. Of the 56 reactors, only 41 are in operation.
In 2019, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) asked EDF to repair the welds on the secondary circuit of its Flamanville reactor. These re-welding operations are complex and require the implementation of heat treatments.
You should know that these heat treatments are essential to be able to weld on carbon steel. They release the tension on the installations. According to the explanations of Alain Morvan, the director of the Flamanville 3 project, the heat treatment of the complex welds had to be stopped this summer, because the technique used resulted in excessively high temperatures. The engineers therefore had to review their methods and redo the tests.
A construction site that is twelve years behind schedule
The electrician EDF is therefore obliged to announce a new delay of six months. Commercial start-up of the reactor is now scheduled for mid-2024.
In the end, the Flamanville site is twelve years late, and its total cost is now estimated at 13.2 billion euros, against 3.3 billion euros when it started.
►Also to listen: New breakdown on the Flamanville EPR: “EDF is currently checking all the components one by one”