nuclear-news

More costs, more delays, for French nuclear plants, Flamanville, Olkiluoto

EDF forecasts further delays and increased costs at new French nuclear
plant http://www.hazardexonthenet.net/article/53114/EDF-forecasts-further-delays-and-increased-costs-at-new-French-nuclear-plant.aspx?AreaID=2 12 September 2012
Electricité de France (EDF) said in July that the new nuclear power station being built at the Flamanville site on the Normandy coast is now expected to open in 2016 and cost €6bn ($7.34bn), instead of the original starting date of 2012 and cost of €3.3bn.

EDF blamed “structural and economic reasons” for the latest delays at
Flamanville 3, saying that it is the first nuclear power plant to be
built in France for 15 years.

There have been similar delays and cost overruns at Olkiluoto in
Finland, where another French company, Areva, is building the same
reactor type. Both power plants will be using the Areva-designed
European Pressurised Reactor (EPR). EDF is also using this design at
Taishan in China, where construction is well advanced, and at Hinkley
Point and Sizewell in the UK, where a final decision to proceed is
expected before the end of the year.

Although 80% of the civil engineering work at Flamanville has been
completed and assembly of piping and electrical equipment has begun,
two serious accidents at the site slowed construction progress in
2011. In addition, detailed analyses needed to be carried out as a
result of the Fukushima incident.

Nucleonics Week said there had been a number of problems with welds in
the steel liner of the containment building and errors in the
installation of steel reinforcement. The French nuclear regulator,
Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, also halted concrete pouring work for
three weeks in June and July last year citing “insufficient project
organisation”.

The French state-owned utility said that it has decided to introduce a
new approach to organisation of the project. This will include new
site management and supervision practices, the creation of a committee
to bring together the nine principal companies working on the site and
the consolidation of requirements in terms of safety and preparation
for intervention operations.

“This updated project will give EDF valuable feedback and a tried and
tested approach to organisation for future EPR reactors, particularly
in the United Kingdom,” EDF said. The French utility has already
started preliminary site work in Somerset and Suffolk.

As regards its UK plans, EDF has previously said that it will publish
an ‘adjusted timetable’ for its proposed new build projects this
autumn. This timetable will take into account the final Fukushima
lessons learned from UK nuclear inspector Mike Weightman’s report, as
well as EDF’s own lessons from its new-build projects in China and
France, the utility said.

September 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France