Interior view of the third generation EPR reactor at Flamanville, June 14, 2022 in Manche (AFP / Sameer Al-DOUMY)
EDF has started loading fuel into the new generation EPR reactor in Flamanville (Manche), the first step in the gradual start of electricity production, 12 years late, the group announced on Wednesday in a press release.
After the green light given Tuesday by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), “the EDF teams began loading the fuel assemblies into the reactor vessel on May 8, 2024 at 2 p.m.”, kicking off operations start-up and tests before an effective connection to the electricity network planned for the summer.
The loading of the 241 uranium assemblies “will last several days,” adds the group.
“EDF will continue start-up, control and testing operations, over several months, in close collaboration with and under the control of ASN,” the press release concludes.
On Tuesday, ASN, the French nuclear watchdog, gave the green light to the commissioning of this reactor, at the end of a laborious 17-year project, punctuated by multiple problems and colossal additional costs. In total, ASN carried out nearly 600 inspections throughout the duration of the project.
The 1,600 MW reactor will be the most powerful in the French nuclear fleet, which will now number 57.
President Emmanuel Macron should mark the event with a trip planned for mid-May to Flamanville, unconfirmed at this stage, according to a source close to the matter.
Connection to the electricity network (the “coupling”) will only take place in several months, once the reactor has reached 25% of its power. It is only at the “end of the year” that the reactor should deliver its electrons at 100% of its power, according to EDF.
Until then, EDF will still have to request three opinions from ASN: “before starting the nuclear reaction” (a step which can take several weeks), at the 25% power level, then at the 80% level, Julien Collet, deputy director general of the safety authority, told AFP on Tuesday.
The Flamanville nuclear site, April 24, 2024 in Manche (AFP / Lou BENOIST)
For the Sortir du Nucléaire network, “this hasty commissioning can be explained by the government’s desire to demonstrate that its French EPR can work and that EDF has completed this catastrophic project”.
Launched in 1992 as the flagship of nuclear technology, based on an initial Franco-German collaboration, the European pressurized reactor (EPR) was designed to relaunch the atom in Europe, after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, by promising safety and increased power.
But like the first EPR project, launched in Olkiluoto (Finland) in 2005, that of Flamanville started in 2007 experienced a succession of setbacks: cracks in the concrete of the slab, anomalies in the steel of the tank , welding defects…
EPRs have already been inaugurated, two in China then that of Olkiluoto, but the next reactors that EDF intends to build in France and in Europe will be EPR2, a simplified version, according to the electrician.