EDF announced this Monday the launch of a large-scale test campaign, a kind of “last dress rehearsal” before the start of the Flamanville EPR, whose commissioning, often postponed, should take place in 2024.
“Start of the last general rehearsal before the start of the Flamanville EPR,” EDF announced on the Flamanville EPR account on life of the facilities for 10 weeks,” EDF specified through the site’s official account.
Fuel loading into the reactor is still planned for the first quarter of 2024, according to the schedule announced in December 2022, for the first megawatts of the network during the year, EDF told AFP. Flamanville EPR costs and schedule have continued to decline since construction began in 2007.
In December 2022, a new delay of six months was announced for the commissioning scheduled for mid-2024, bringing the delay of the site to 12 years, the bill for which is expected to amount to 13.2 billion euros, is That is, four times the initial budget of 3.3 billion.
New public consultation before launch
The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the sector’s supervisory body, announced last week that it had closed on September 15 the public consultation that had begun on June 5 on the request for authorization for commissioning. He is currently “analyzing the comments collected during this consultation” and, at the end of this work, will create “a summary of the contributions” which he will publish on his website. He specified that he will take into account “these comments as part of the finalization of the examination of the application for authorization to put into service.”
Finally, “the draft decision of the ASN authorizing the commissioning of the reactor and specifying the technical requirements that must be respected for its operation will be the subject of a new public consultation before commissioning”, to which the ASN will attach the opinions of the Environment Commission. Authority and local authorities.
If they are conclusive, the tests that EDF is initiating will allow the ASN to take a position on the request for authorization of commissioning, when “the definitive justifications on the safety of the installation have been presented and the operator is ready to begin the operations of start up”. “, specified ASN. This authorization is “necessary to load fuel into the reactor,” concluded the ASN.
Source: BFM TV
