Given the numerous setbacks encountered by the Flamanville EPR construction site, the new generation nuclear reactor, the announcement of the postponement of the loading of reactor fuel to mid-April instead of March 31 seems almost anecdotal.
The Minister of Industry Roland Lescure estimated this Wednesday on France Info that we were “not within two weeks”.
“We’ve been waiting for twelve years,” he added.
The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN, nuclear watchdog) indicated that it would launch "in the coming days" the public consultation on the draft commissioning decision, for fifteen days, or even three weeks, before taking its decision, this prerequisite is necessary for EDF to be able to load the nuclear fuel rods into the reactor.
“So we will see by the end of April what the ASN’s decision is,” said the minister.
“Starting a nuclear power plant is not like starting a Clio”
Until now, the EDF group had announced fuel loading in the first quarter of 2024, an objective repeated several times.
For the moment, the date of “coupling”, that is to say its connection to the network, is maintained at mid-2024, according to the latest regulatory information from EDF published in December 2023.
Asked about maintaining this schedule, the minister was very cautious: “starting a nuclear power plant is not like starting a Clio or a 208, it takes a little more time,” he said. answered.
“What will normally happen is that we will load the fuel, so if all goes well after the public consultation, therefore by the end of April.
Then there are a few months of ramp-up and then the plant is running,” he explained.
If the start-up is confirmed in the summer of 2024, it will take place 12 years behind schedule, for a total bill now estimated at 13.2 billion euros, according to EDF, or four times the initial budget of 3, 3 billion euros.
“We have waited for a long time, this EPR, it will work,” concluded Roland Lescure, hoping to “learn from these lessons” to build the EPR2 planned by Emmanuel Macron, as part of the relaunch of the atom.