[Machine Translation] Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 June, a group of nuclear experts must give its opinion on the tank and the cap of the Flamanville EPR, whose steel is not sufficiently homogenous in carbon. IRSN made a critical report on the properties of the lid. Reporter explains this complicated file. The Nuclear Safety Standards Group (GP-ESPN) has been referred by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), who is due to say on Tuesday if the EPR tank is strong enough Its manufacturing defects. In order to give their opinions, the 31 experts (civil society, industrial representatives, researchers, etc.) are studying a technical report drawn up by the IRSN (Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety). According to this report, which the AFP has been able to consult, the main concern is in the lid of the tank, while the suitability of the bottom is not totally questioned. Without thorough and regular checks throughout the operation of the reactor, “the ability to service the actual tank lid (…) is not permanently acquired,” reports the report. He adds that ‘EDF is currently unable to implement’ the necessary controls and that, if this situation is not resolved, the use of the current cover ‘can not be envisaged beyond a few years Operating “. In other words, EDF could have to replace the lid of the tank of the EPR. But it will be up to the ASN to conclude in its final decision, expected in the autumn after public consultation.
Reporterre 27th June 2017 read more »
[Machine Translation] The file of the EPR of Flamanville enters its last phase. Since its conception, this power station of third generation has only chained the galleys. Whether in terms of timing and costs (they have tripled to 10.5 billion euros). But the most serious incident concerns the Flamanville vat. Two years ago, the Nuclear Safety Authority announced that it had too high concentrations of carbon. “A serious or very serious anomaly,” ASN president Pierre-Franck Chevet said, because this incident could reduce the capacity of the tank to withstand pressures and thermal shocks. On the other hand, the tank weighing not less than 450 tons is one of the few parts of a plant that cannot be changed. Re-doing another would take years. This would be a fatal blow to Flamanville, EDF’s takeover of Areva’s reactor business and Hinkley Point’s English EPRs (which depend on the successful launch of Flamanville). Ultimately, it is the entire French nuclear industry that, if the ASN has a negative opinion, may find itself in the middle.
Challenges 26th June 2017 read more »
[Machine Translation] EPR of Flamanville: a report warns EDF on the reliability of the lid of the tank. The operator may have to quickly replace this reactor masterpiece after commissioning, which is still scheduled for the end of 2018.EDF executives have been overly optimistic, obviously convinced that the future reactor tank of the Flamanville (Manche) EPR reactor would pass without difficulty before the “judges” of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and His armed wing, the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). The situation is ultimately more complex: it is not excluded that the plant operator must at least change the lid of this tank, only a few years after the EPR has been put into service. Meeting on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th June, the 31 members of the permanent group of experts for nuclear pressure equipment (industrialists, associations …) took note of a long report (193 pages) of the IRSN and the Direction des Equipment under ASN’s nuclear pressure, which is very critical in some respects. If it does not question the future of the powerful third generation reactor (1,650 MW), designed by Areva in the 1990s, it puts an additional mortgage on a project that will already cost 10.5 billion d ‘ Three times more than expected.
Le Monde 26th June 2017 read more »