Nuclear reactor connection to grid delayed until late autumn, EDF announces

The finish line pushed back again in the final meters? EDF announced on Monday, September 2, a new delay in the commissioning of its EPR reactor in Flamanville.

Connection to the electricity grid is now planned by “the end of autumn”while the electrician had previously been counting on the end of summer – and on September 21 at the latest. “A test program to achieve a power level of 25% will be implemented”level at which the EPR “will be connected to the national electricity grid for the first time and will then produce electricity”a deadline “expected by the end of fall 2024”the group said in a press release.

On the same day, EDF also announced that it had obtained the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) for the production of the first electrons from the Flamanville EPR. “ASN has just given us the go-ahead for this first start-up”announced Régis Clément, deputy director of the French group’s nuclear production division, during a press briefing.

The energy company has also raised its estimate of its nuclear energy production in France for the year 2024. Nuclear electricity production should be between 340 and 360 TWh, compared to a range of 315 to 345 TWh initially planned (not including the Flamanville EPR). “The other 56 reactors are performing better than what we had integrated”said Régis Clément, so that the production of “the EPR will arrive as a supplement”.