The Flamanville 3 EPR nuclear reactor, France’s most powerful to date, finally began providing electricity to French homes on Saturday after a plethora of technical setbacks led to a 12-year delay and a four-fold increase in the project’s overall cost.
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The first EPR came online in 2018 when Unit 1 at the Taishan site in China entered commercial operation. Two other EPRs are currently in service: Taishan 2 in China, and at Olkiluoto in Finland. The Olkiluoto unit came online last year, 14 years after it was originally intended to be commissioned.
Flamanville 3’s cost is estimated at about 13.2 billion euros ($13.76 billion), about four times its initial estimated cost of 3.3 billion euros. The reactor was started up on Sept. 3 of this year, but sustained what was called an “automatic shutdown” the next day. That resulted in more testing at the site, and a gradual ramp-up to Saturday’s grid connection.
Macron has pledged to add more nuclear power to France’s generation fleet. His government in 2022 ordered six EPR2 reactors, a simplified version of the EPR design. EDF and Framatome are developing the EPR2. Macron has said he is considering options for eight more EPR2 units in addition to the six already ordered.
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