Nuclear reaction has resumed at the Flamanville EPR in La Manche, EDF announced on Saturday 7 September. The reactor was automatically shut down on Wednesday, the day after it was first started up.
EDF teams had to carry out technical checks and analyses. “Start-up is a long and complex process that requires numerous tests and trials and can lead to stoppages of this type,” a spokesperson for the EDF group told AFP on Wednesday evening.
The tests appear to have been conclusive, as activity has been able to resume. “The Flamanville 3 reactor has diverged and stabilised at 0.2% of its power since 08:21,” a spokesman for the group told AFP. “Divergence” is the technical term for a nuclear reaction.
The start-up of this new-generation nuclear reactor is 12 years behind schedule due to numerous technical setbacks which have caused the bill to explode, currently estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, i.e. four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.
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Source: BFM TV
