EDF’s much-postponed plan for a reactor in Normandy of the same kind as those earmarked for Britain has come in for stinging criticism from France’s nuclear watchdog. A senior official at the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire implicitly accused the French state electrician of delaying the disclosure that at least 33 welds at the European Pressurised Reactor that is under construction in Flamanville were substandard and needed to be repaired at a cost of €400 million. EDF says that the teething troubles it has encountered at Flamanville will help to smooth the construction of two EPRs at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
Times 19th Oct 2018 read more »
The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) fears that the site of the EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville (Channel) has other problems “very difficult” , in addition to that of welds, said Thursday, October 18 the head of the EPR pole of the ASN of Normandy. “I do not hide from you that ( … ) we can imagine that there may indeed be other difficulties elsewhere. We are looking at whether the welds will remain, or not, the only very difficult topic ” of this project, said Eric Zelnio at a meeting of the Local Information Committee (CLI) on the Flamanville nuclear site. This is the reason why the ASN “is about to formulate to EDF a request to extend to other equipment on the reactor” the requested quality review of the weld problem. The nuclear policeman also asks the group to “work on the kinetics of these dysfunctions, known for some for some years, ” continued Zelnio. “We have the feeling that there has been a significant lapse of time between detection, reaction and information,” added the pole leader, also regretting “the fact that some operations were not suspended” in the wake of these detections.
Le Monde 18th Oct 2018 read more »