The Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Eurajoki, Finland (Hannu Huovila / TVO / CC BY-SA 3.0)
The French government has postponed its policy of postponing a decision to build more EPR reactors until work on the disastrous Flamanville facility in Normandy has been completed.
Industry Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said on Friday that it was essential for France to expand its nuclear fleet if the country wants to achieve CO2 neutrality by the target date of 2050.
Nuclear energy and renewable energies are “indispensable” for France’s energy sovereignty. This clears the way to work on six more projects earlier than expected.
The EPR reactor is a third generation design developed by nuclear engineer Framatome and Électricité de France (EDF). The original version has proven difficult to build, with the first two projects in Flamanville and Olkiluoto in Finland (pictured) both suffering from long delays and cost overruns. Two more reactors were completed at the Taishan plant in Guangdong, China, and commissioned in 2018 and 2019 (see further literature).
The French government decided in 2019 to ask EDF to develop a plan to build six more EPR reactors over the next 15 years with a simplified “EPR 2” design. It was later said that no work would begin until Flamanville was operational. The project is now expected to be completed in 2022, 15 years after work began on site.
Ms. Pannier-Runacher said work could start now if the government was certain that Flamanville was “on the right track”.
The advice has been questioned by the environmental NGO Greenpeace, which said in a statement that a “decisive decision for France” before the Normandy project was completed would be “an outright denial of democracy”.
Image: The Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Eurajoki, Finland (Hannu Huovila / TVO / CC BY-SA 3.0)
Comments are closed.