Final straight for the Flamanville EPR (Manche), but perhaps with a few jolts.
For the moment, the latest schedule set by EDF is not moving: the first fuel loading must take place this month, before a connection to the network at mid-year for the new generation reactor.
But discussions with the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) relating to these operations are still taking place: according to
La Presse de la Manche
and
Le Monde
, a new chronological shift, even slight, would be likely to occur.
Since the beginning, the EPR agenda has continued to be disrupted.
In 2024, commissioning will take place twelve years late compared to the initial schedule, which was based on 2012. The bill has skyrocketed as a result: it now amounts to 13.2 billion euros, an amount almost quadrupled compared to initial estimates.
Flamanville 3 does not have a monopoly on repeated delays.
In Great Britain, the Hinkley Point C site is also undergoing developments.
At the beginning of the year, EDF announced that the end of the project was postponed at best by at least two years, or even four years, i.e. coupling to the network between 2029 and 2031.
Read alsoNuclear: final warm-up round for the Flamanville EPR
This series of obstacles does not prevent the EPR from remaining the spearhead of the French electrician's nuclear policy.
The government roadmap has assigned the construction of six new reactors of the future in the medium term;
the project for eight additional EPRs is in the pipeline, i.e. the possibility of a fleet of fourteen new installations, for a budget of more than 100 billion euros.