The French government has allowed EDF to postpone by 4 years the deadline for commissioning its 1,650 MW EPR in Flamanville, extending it to 2024, as the coronavirus crisis is slowing down works on the nuclear project.
The Flamanville project was initially expected to be commissioned in 2013 (completion of construction in late 2012) at a cost of €3.3bn. Technical problems have led to significant delays and cost escalation. Construction time has tripled from 5 to more than 15 years - and its cost has soared by more than 200% to nearly €11bn, and now to €12.4bn (2015 euros and excluding interim interest). Indeed, in June 2019, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) asked the group to repair eight containment penetration welds that failed to comply with the break preclusion principle. In October 2019, EDF revised the construction schedule for the nuclear project and raised the estimated construction cost by €1.5bn to €12.4bn, after the adoption of a scenario for upgrading the main secondary system penetration welds with robots at the project.
