New setback for the EPR: this Saturday morning, the new generation nuclear reactor is still not connected to the electricity grid

L’EPR de Flamanville n’était toujours pas raccordé au réseau électrique ce samedi matin. France Bleu Cotentin – Pierre Coquelin

La journée de vendredi devait marquer un aboutissement pour ce chantier qui accuse douze ans de retard sur le calendrier initial en raison de nombreux déboires techniques.

The connection of the Flamanville EPR to the national electricity grid, initially planned for Friday and then announced at best during the night, had not yet taken place Saturday morning, according to EDF.

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This first connection of a new reactor in France since 1999 was planned initially Friday morning before being postponed several times, EDF reporting an extension of the preliminary maintenance operation to be completed by Saturday 10 a.m.

Twelve years late

Yesterday was supposed to mark the end of this project, which is twelve years behind schedule due to numerous technical setbacks. These have caused the deadlines and the bill to explode, now estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.

In 2020, the Court of Auditors had estimated it at 19 billion, including the “additional financing costs”. Paradoxically, the arrival on the network of this reactor of more than 1,600 MW, the most powerful in the French fleet, comes at a time when the country's electricity consumption is down by around 6% compared to the years before Covid-19.

First opening of a reactor since 1999

It has been a quarter of a century since France, the country with the most nuclear power plants per capita, last started up a new reactor, since 1999 with the nuclear reactor 2 in Civaux, in Vienne. In addition to the complexity of the project, the long pause in the construction of new reactors in France is pointed out by experts, for whom it has led to a loss of skills in the sector, partly explaining the setbacks encountered on this colossal project.

Emmanuel Macron has decided to relaunch civil nuclear power in France, by ordering six EPR2 reactors (and eight additional ones as an option) from the energy company, but the budgetary framework is still awaited for this project, which is all the more colossal since EDF, 100% owned by the State, is heavily in debt.