Once again, even for a minimal period, EDF is preparing to review the schedule for its cursed project. That of the Flamanville EPR (Manche), a high-power nuclear reactor whose first concrete dates from the end of 2007.
According to the elements transmitted to World by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), and of which La Presse de la Manche has already been echoed, the first loading of fuel into the reactor vessel cannot be carried out, at the earliest, until April. However, since the end of 2022, EDF has been targeting this objective for the first quarter of 2024. In December 2023, the electrician specified that it wanted to achieve it by the month of March.
Any additional delay will raise the question: will this delay, the duration of which remains to be specified, lead to other delays on the general schedule? When contacted, EDF refrained from any comment. Officially, the public group is still maintaining the same course, since the end of 2022: it still plans, until then, to connect the EPR to the electricity network to “mid-2024” – that is to say already twelve years late.
Costs multiplied by four
Friday March 22, ASN declared that it was still in the process of examining the authorization to commission the reactor and assessing the “boiler compliance “. This independent administrative authority specifies that it will then have to submit its commissioning authorization project for public consultation, on the Internet. The consultation will last at least fifteen days, according to article L. 123-19-2 of the environmental code, to which reference is made. Then, “except in the event of absence of observations and proposals”it will take at least three more days before adopting the decision, “ from the closing date of the consultation »the article continues.
According to our information, an exchange between EDF and ASN is coming at the beginning of next week. The Flamanville EPR, with unrivaled power in France (1,600 megawatts), is supposed to start operating at a quarter of its capacity from mid-2024 – this is the time planned for its coupling to the electricity network. Its full power is only expected to be reached by the end of 2024. At least, according to the project owner’s current schedule.
In December 2022, EDF further revised the estimate of its construction costs, bringing them to 13.2 billion euros. That is four times more than initially. And again, this sum does not correspond to his entire invoice from the Normandy site. There are also financial costs, known as intermediary costs. So much so that the total amount to be paid would already reach 19 billion euros, according to a report issued in 2020 by the Court of Auditors.
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