This Saturday France connected the most powerful nuclear reactor in the national electrical grid, the european pressurized reactor Flamanville 3 located in Normandy. A historic moment in the French country despite years of delays, budget overruns and technical setbacks.
The nuclear reactor began supplying electricity to the French homes at 11:48 a.m. on Saturdayas reported in a statement by the CEO of the electric company EDF, Luc Remont.
“It is a great moment for the country,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on his social networks, calling it “one of the most powerful nuclear reactors in the world.” «Reindustrialize to Producing low-carbon energy is French-style ecology», he added. “It strengthens our competitiveness and protects the climate.”
Great moment for the pays.
L’un des réacteurs nucléaires les plus puissants du monde, l’EPR de Flamanville, wind d’être raccordé au réseau electrique.
Réindustrialiser pour produire une énergie bas carbone, c’est l’écologie à la française. Ensemble nous and arrivons.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 21, 2024
The French European pressurized reactor project, launched in 1992, was conceived to relaunch nuclear energy in Europe after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986in Soviet Ukraine.
It will supply energy to two million homes
The EPR, a new generation pressurized water reactor, andIt is the fourth that is completed in the world. Reactors of similar design in China and Finland came online earlier. The launch is good news for the company state energy company EDFheavily in debt, after multiple problems extended construction for 17 years and caused huge budget overruns.
«The last time a reactor was commissioned in France was 25 years ago in Civaux 2», he said in reference to the Civaux plant, in the southwest of France. The connection was initially scheduled for Friday.
It is the most powerful reactor in the country with 1,600 MW. Ultimately, should supply electricity to more than two million homes. The connection to the grid “will be marked by different power levels until the summer of 2025”, in a testing phase that will last months, according to the EDF company. The plant will stop for a complete inspection that will last at least 250 dayslikely in spring 2026, the company added.
Construction of the Flamanville reactor began in 2007 and was beset by numerous problems. Start-up occurs with 12 years late after a plethora of technical setbacks which caused the cost of the project to skyrocket to an estimated €13.2 billion ($13.76 billion), four times more than the initial estimate of €3.3 billion.
Commissioning began on September 3, but had to be interrupted the next day due to an “automatic stop.” It resumed a few days later. Generation has been gradually increased to allow connection of the reactor to the electrical grid. Nuclear energy represents around three fifths of French electricity production and the country has one of the largest nuclear energy programs in the world. This contrasts with neighboring Germany, which abandoned nuclear energy last year.
“This morning culminates a titanic effort that has finally borne fruit,” declared the outgoing Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, in X. “We draw all the lessons so that the nuclear reactivation that we decided with the President of the Republic is a success.” Macron has decided to promote nuclear energy to reinforce French energy sustainability ordering six new generation reactors and raising options for eight more, which could cost tens of billions of euros. In 2022, he called for a “renaissance” of the country’s nuclear industry to move away from fossil fuels.
“What we have to build today is the renaissance of the French nuclear industry because it is the right time, because it is the right thing for our nation, because everything is in place,” Macron said at the time.
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