The Nuclear Safety Authority authorizes the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR, initially planned for 2012

The future commissioning of the new generation EPR reactor at Flamanville constitutes a key step for the gradual launch of electricity production planned for the summer.

This green light gives a boost to a project which has accumulated no less than 12 years of delay. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) “has just adopted the authorization to commission the Flamanville EPR”, declared to AFP on Tuesday May 7, the deputy director general of the French nuclear watchdog, Julien Collet. Issued at the end of its instruction, “this authorization will allow EDF to begin loading fuel into the reactor core and then begin the testing phase which will continue” over the coming months, he added, echoing an ASN press release.

These tests will notably make it possible to “check the correct behavior of the reactor core” And “the proper functioning of the reactor safety devices”according to Julien Collet.

A key step towards producing electricity in the coming months

Thus, the future commissioning of the new generation EPR reactor at Flamanville constitutes a key step for the gradual launch of electricity production, planned for the summer. EDF can now start loading at any time, “one by one”uranium assemblies in the reactor, an essential milestone before the progressive launch.

Connection to the electrical network, called “coupling“, will however only intervene in a few months, once the reactor has reached 25% of its power, after a gradual increase in stages, which will require new opinions from the ASN. This is only in “end of the year” that the reactor should operate and deliver its electrons at 100% of its power, according to EDF.

At a time when the government wants to build up to 14 reactors in France, the loading of fuel is a decisive step for EDF and the entire sector, which intend to turn the page on a difficult 17-year project, punctuated by multiple problems and colossal budgetary slippages: at this time, the total bill is estimated by EDF at 13.2 billion euros, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.