Flamanville EPR Nuclear Reactor: The Countdown to the Atomic Clock.

Paris Normandie 17th March 2018, [Machine Translation] “They are not ready. “Monday morning, at the end of acommittee of health, safety and working conditions of the plant, trade unionists of the CGT are circumspect. EDF agents have just visited the future Local Crisis Center (CCL), one of the “post-Fukushima” equipment whose vocation is to ensure the management of crises.

“They’re supposed to be up and running in two weeks, but we’re far from it …” After seven

years of delay and a construction cost that has tripled to reach 10.5

billion euros, the commissioning of the EPR, this new generation nuclear

reactor under construction in Flamanville, is scheduled for May 2019. The

goal is to be able to load the fuel into the tank in December.

But the context remains tense for this site which accumulated the setbacks: the

problems recently discovered on the tank lid – which will have to be

changed before 2024 when it is normally every 20 or 30 years – or on the

secondary circuit welds leave an uncertainty about the authorization that

could give – or not – the ASN, the “policeman” nuclear.

Sébastien Lecornu,”second” of Nicolas Hulot and former president of the departmental council

of the Eure, visiting the site of the EPR in early February, had said: “I trust EDF

http://www.paris-normandie.fr/accueil/reacteur-nucleaire-epr-de-flamanville–le-compte-a-rebours-de-l-horloge-atomique-FH12516146