Another delay for Flamanville nuclear plant as regulator completes safety review

The project to build a new nuclear unit at France’s Flamanville nuclear power plant is likely to face another delay. The French nuclear regulator said it is completing its safety review, which will include a public consultation process. The project is already years behind schedule, with operations originally due to begin in 2012.

According to Reuters, the nuclear regulator’s recent announcement effectively means another delay for the project. Construction of France’s first EPR unit has significantly exceeded both its originally expected budget and construction time. While the original 2004 budget put costs at around 3 billion euros, the total had already exceeded 13 billion euros by the end of 2022.

EDF said, according to Reuters, that fuel loading in the unit is due to begin about a month before it is connected to the electricity grid, which is planned for around the middle of this year. However, the company declined to comment to the news agency on possible delays resulting from the ongoing safety review.

Approval from the nuclear regulator is essential for EDF to begin loading fuel into the reactor. In a separate statement, the regulator said it had asked EDF to conduct a retrospective review of its oversight of component manufacturing for its nuclear units. The regulator announced this year that it had detected 43 cases of fraud last year, including among suppliers of equipment for the new EPR unit at Flamanville.