nuclear-news

New failure on the Flamanville EPR, the reactor control system’s malfunction

After problems with concrete, steel or welds, the reactor under
construction experienced a new malfunction.

Part of the installation’s control systems is out of order. The structural failure, known since 2019,
is now recognized by EDF. Flamanville and its EPR reactor, umpteenth
episode.

We thought we knew everything about the setbacks of the calamitous
EDF project which has been dragging on for fifteen years now on the nuclear
power plant in the Manche department and whose bill has gone in seventeen
years from 3.3 billion to 12.7 billion euros ( and even 19 billion with
interest and launch costs according to the Court of Auditors ).

Well no !
After the concrete problems during the construction of the reactor
building, the poorly forged steel of the bottom and the cover of the
nuclear vessel or the poorly made welds on the reactor piping, EDF has a
new problem on its hands.

And a big one: two essential systems which make
it possible to control the reactor are victims of a problem problem for the
start of the EPR. A tile known for several years by the operator and the
Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), but which has not been the subject of any
publicity and has still not been resolved, according to information from
Liberation . We already knew that this powerful 1,650 MWe nuclear reactor
would not enter service before the end of 2023, more than ten years behind
the date initially planned.

 Liberation 19th July 2022

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/nucleaire/nouvelle-panne-sur-lepr-de-flamanville-le-systeme-de-pilotage-du-reacteur-en-cause-20220719_YZC3FQPLVRD3VN4NAAT462OIRM/

July 22, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety