Further delays to EPR nuclear projects EPR plants being built in the EU have been plagued by construction and commissioning postponements

摘要

In late July,French utility EDF confirmed that its long-delayed nuclear reactor at Flamanville has suffered another setback due to faulty welding.Now,the company says,commissioning is not expected until the end of 2022.When construction of the facility started in 2007,its target launch date was 2012-meaning that its completion is now on course to be delayed by more than a decade.In June,French nuclear safety regulator ASN ordered EDF to repair eight welds in the reactor's containment building.Issues with the welding were first reported in July 2018,at which point EDF had already delayed the loading of fuel until the end of this year,adding an additional €400mn to the plant's budget.Flamanville was originally meant to cost €3.3bn,but this figure is now in excess of €10.9bn.Newly revised cost estimates for the project are expected in the coming months.The nuclear power station at Flamanville is one of three plants being built in Europe using next-generation European Pressurised Reactor designs.The other two are Finland's Olkiluoto and the UK's Hinkley Point C.Olkiluoto is facing costly delays of its own-Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj(TVO)announced in July that it was further delaying the commercial launch of the 1.6 GW Olkiluoto 3 reactor by six months to July 2020.