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France is starting up its first newly built nuclear reactor in a quarter of a century, 12 years behind schedule and after multiple setbacks as the industry looks to a revival with plans for more new plants.
EDF, the French state-owned operator of Europe’s biggest fleet of nuclear power stations, said late on Monday that the first chain reactions — or so-called divergence operations — at the Flamanville 3 reactor on France’s Normandy coast were due to get under way overnight.
If these are successful the reactor will eventually be connected to the grid before the end of the year, once it has reached 25 per cent of its total 1.65 gigawatt capacity — enough to power a large city.
The reactor, France’s 57th and a prototype of models EDF wants to develop at home and overseas, had come to epitomise the reversals the nuclear industry was suffering globally in the wake of a downturn in orders over recent decades, which prompted skilled workers to leave the sector.
Flamanville ended up costing more than four times its initial budget at €13.2bn, and took longer to finish than similar models EDF built in China and Finland that were also hit by delays.
Components for the complex design had to be retooled, some after complaints from safety regulators. EDF was also criticised by the French government for how it struggled to co-ordinate the project that involved hundreds of suppliers.
“It’s a historic step in this project,” Régis Clement, co-head of EDF’s nuclear production division, said of the launch. “Our teams are on the starting blocks.”
EDF, which has contracts to build new reactors in Britain and is tendering to export its design elsewhere, said it had learned valuable lessons from Flamanville 3 that will allow it to whittle down construction times in future.
But it still faces a series of hurdles at home despite French President Emmanuel Macron launching a plan to build at least six new reactors.
The orders have yet to be formalised, and a political impasse in Paris may only delay the process further, after legislative elections this summer delivered a hung parliament.
EDF, which is spending money filling thousands of new positions to prepare for the orders, needs to agree on a funding plan for the projects, which could cost over €52bn.
Hopes of reaching a deal by the end of the year are fading, several people close to the company said. An initial ambition to deliver the new reactors by 2037 seems optimistic as a result, they added.
Other challenges include improving design updates for the future reactors while training a range of staff from engineers to welders will take time.
EDF also faces competition overseas from other players, such as South Korean rivals, amid a worldwide revival of nuclear technology.
Though valued for its low carbon emissions, nuclear power has faced an atmosphere of distrust after the Chernobyl accident of 1986 and the Fukushima meltdown in Japan following a tsunami in 2011.
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