The Nuclear Safety Authority gave the green light on Tuesday to the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR, in Normandy, after years of delay.
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France is preparing to start up a new nuclear reactor. The Nuclear Safety Authority gave the green light on Tuesday May 7 for the commissioning of the EPR, the new generation reactor, at Flamanville in La Manche. This is the end of a very long project, which began in 2007 and which will have accumulated 12 years of delay. But this work has also enabled the development of the local economy and, with the gradual commissioning in the coming months, communities are expecting new benefits.
In Flamanville, we come across central employees, badges still around their necks, in all the businesses, such as in Emilie’s bakery: “It makes the city work a lot. There are a lot of people from the EPR who come to work so it brings us customers.”
“A feeling of movement for the inhabitants”
Currently, in the start-up phase, the EPR employs 800 EDF employees and nearly 2,000 employees of partner companies. Over the 17 years of the project, the closest communities have been transformed to welcome newcomers. A cultural center is being built, as is a health center. The small town of Les Pieux, 3,200 inhabitants near Flamanville, has benefited from funding, explains mayor Catherine Bihel.
“We had support, a few years ago, for major equipment. Our cultural space, the leisure center, crèches etc… We had support from EDF for the repayment of these loans so we there was no urgency for the EPR to start at the fiscal level, explains the chosen one. But despite everything, on an economic level, it’s still interesting because it’s a feeling of movement for the residents. We want what has been planned for so many years to come to fruition. It would be nice to get it started.”
A future tax that arouses covetousness
Enthusiasm for the start-up of the reactor is stronger in other municipalities in La Manche due to the fiscal interest, mentioned by the mayor of Les Pieux. Because when the EPR begins to really produce electricity, EDF will pay a new tax, in addition to that paid for the first two reactors of the plant. The Cotentin urban community will distribute the envelope.
Its president, David Margueritte (LR), is counting on it this year: “The tax revenue for 2024 will depend on the start time. We roughly know that we will be around 35 million euros in additional tax revenue and that it will make it possible to make the territory even more attractive by developing outpatient health centers, a community health center, new schools with a campus, housing… A certain number of these investments have been initiated but they are conditional, for some of them, on the start of the EPR.” David Margueritte will now follow the different stages of the commissioning of the EPR, with, he says, “a serene impatience”.