Assuming that construction starts, the first of the six new EPR 2 nuclear reactors wanted by the government will have to wait until at least 2035 to go into production. And again, according to the most favorable scenario. In the meantime, the executive is also exploring another possibility: increasing the already existing capacities, if only marginally, thanks, for example, to the optimization or replacement of certain parts.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition, indicated to MondeApril 8, to have ” asked “ to the electrician EDF “to study an increase in the power of the French nuclear fleet”. The request follows the nuclear policy council convened by the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, on February 3. Conclusions of the study expected by the end of the year, “in connection with the Nuclear Safety Authority [ASN] ».
“This technical instruction is part of all the measures aimed at increasing the production of carbon-free energy in France and therefore in the policy of relaunching the French nuclear industry”emphasizes M.me Pannier-Runacher. Difficult, at this stage, to quantify the expected gain for the fifty-six French reactors, the main source of electricity in the country.
“Every megawatt is good to take”
Of the “orders of magnitude of 4% to 5% power” more on some of them would be possible, according to Sylvie Richard, director of EDF’s “grand fairing”, a vast program of inspection and renovation to extend the life of the power stations. For a slice of 1,300 megawatts (MW), the power could then increase to 1,365 MW. If they applied to each of the twenty 1,300 MW units, these cumulative increases would be equivalent… to the creation of a twenty-first unit.
Without indulging in such extrapolations, Mr.me Richard concedes that “every MW of electricity is good to take”. The leader was passing, on March 30, at the Saint-Laurent power station (Loir-et-Cher): one of the reactors is there in full in-depth examination, as part of its fourth ten-year visit.
According to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the study concerns the entire park: thirty-two units of 900 MW, twenty of 1,300 MW, four of 1,450 MW, for a current total of approximately 61.4 gigawatts – knowing that the Flamanville EPR (Manche), around 1,600 MW, is supposed to enter service in 2024, twelve years late. “International examples show that room for maneuver exists”, considers the minister. In particular in the United States, as explained by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the American regulatory commission.
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