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France is starting up its first new nuclear reactor in a quarter of a century, 12 years behind schedule and after several setbacks as the industry looks to recover with plans to build more new plants.
EDF, the French state-owned company that operates Europe’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants, said late Monday that the first chain reaction – or divergence operation – at the Flamanville 3 reactor on France’s Normandy coast is expected to take place tonight.
If successful, the reactor will finally be connected to the grid before the end of the year, when it reaches 25 percent of its total capacity of 1.65 gigawatts — enough to power a major city.
France’s 57th reactor and a prototype for models that EDF wants to develop at home and abroad, embodies the reversal the nuclear industry is suffering globally after a slump in orders in recent decades that has forced many skilled workers to leave the sector.
The Flamanville project has cost four times its original budget of 13.2 billion euros and taken longer to complete than similar models EDF built in China and Finland, which have also suffered delays.
Components for the complex design had to be redesigned, some after complaints from safety regulators. EDF has also been criticised by the French government for the way it struggled to coordinate the project, which involved hundreds of suppliers.
“This is a historic step forward in this project,” said Régis Clement, co-head of EDF’s nuclear production division, of the launch. “Our teams are at the starting line.”
EDF, has a contract with building new reactor in uk and is bidding to export its design elsewhere, saying it has learned valuable lessons from Flamanville 3 that will allow it to shorten construction times in the future.
But the country still faces a series of domestic hurdles despite French President Emmanuel Macron launching plans to build at least six new reactors.
The orders have yet to be formalized, and the political deadlock in Paris could only delay the process further, after legislative elections this summer resulted in a hung parliament.
EDF, which is spending money to hire thousands of new jobs to prepare for orders, needs to agree a financing plan for projects that could cost more than €52bn.
Some people close to the company said hopes of a deal by the end of the year were fading, adding that the original ambition of delivering new reactors by 2037 seemed optimistic.
Other challenges include improving design updates for future reactors while Train a wide range of staff from engineers to welders it will take time
EDF also faces competition from other overseas rivals, such as Korean rivalsin the context of nuclear technology resurgence worldwide.
Although prized for its low carbon emissions, nuclear power has faced a climate of suspicion following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant following the 2011 tsunami.
