Interior view of the third generation EPR reactor at Flamanville, June 14, 2022 in Manche (AFP/Archives/Sameer Al-DOUMY)
12 years late, the loading of uranium began on Wednesday in the tanks of the Flamanville EPR, a new crucial stage in the gradual start-up of the most powerful French nuclear reactor, which EDF intends to produce electricity from summer.
At a time when the government wants to build up to 14 reactors in France, this loading is a major step for EDF and an entire sector which wants to turn the page on a laborious 17-year project, punctuated by multiple problems and additional costs. colossal.
After the green light Tuesday from 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.,” the group announced Wednesday in a communicated.
The loading of the 241 uranium assemblies “will last several days,” he added.
“EDF will continue start-up, control and test operations over several months, in close collaboration with and under the control of ASN”, with the aim of injecting the first electrons into the network during the summer.
Looking out to sea, next to the two older reactors of the Flamanville power station, on the tip of Cotentin, 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 produce 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.
If electricity production does take place this summer, it will take place 12 years late, for a total bill estimated at 13.2 billion euros, according to EDF, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.
In total, ASN will have carried out nearly 600 inspections over the duration of the project.
Launched in 1992 as the flagship of nuclear technology, with 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…
– “Unlearning” the sector –
The difficulties have often been attributed to “a form of unlearning” of the nuclear sector after “a long period of absence of nuclear projects” in the 1990s-2000s, underlines researcher Michaël Mangeon. Added to this are “insufficiently developed studies (…), problems of governance, quality or even a regulatory context in continuous evolution”, he lists.
The Flamanville nuclear site, April 24, 2024 in Manche (AFP/Archives/Lou BENOIST)
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.
In Flamanville, EDF was waiting for a green light in the first quarter. But the authorization examination extended until “the end of April”, according to ASN, due to final compliance checks on the boiler, a key part.
In the meantime, the public consultation by ASN collected 996 contributions, with the Sortir du Nucléaire network assuring that “a large number of them are unfavorable”.
“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,” according to the anti-nuclear association.
Flamanville 3 has not yet finished the work: the reactor will have to be shut down in 2026, during a maintenance visit, to replace the defective tank cover.
© 2024 AFP
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