2023-12-21 14:24:08
Couple Elsa Bembaron
Published 2 minutes ago, Updated now
Flamanvillle should inject its first electrons into the network in 2024 EB.
The exit from the industrial crisis of 2022 and the expected start-up of Flamanville allow the group to be confident.
Little by little, the situation is improving, after a catastrophic year 2022 for French nuclear electricity production. EDF was then forced to shut down up to 32 of its 56 nuclear reactors due to a phenomenon known as “stress corrosion“. The vast repair project carried out vigorously by the company is beginning to bear fruit. While nuclear electricity production had reached its historic low, with 279 terawatt hours (TWh) produced, it should be between 300 and 330 TWH this year.
Above all, EDF is confident for the future. The group confirmed this Thursday its nuclear production estimate ranges for 2024, between 315 and 345 TWh and from 335 to 365 TWh in 2025 and, what is new, a production between 335 and 365 TWh. Little by little, it is approaching the objective of 400 TWh by 2030, implicitly set by the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier Runacher.
Read alsoNuclear: final warm-up round for the Flamanville EPR
Flamanville, soon operational
The other good news comes, for once, from the Flamanville EPR. This project, which has turned into a nightmare for EDF by accumulating delays and additional costs, is (finally) coming to an end. Fuel loading is scheduled for March 2024, with a first “coupling” of the reactor in mid-2024. Which means an injection into the network of the first electrons produced by the EPR. The following test phase includes the passage of different power levels which are subject to the agreement of the nuclear safety authority (ASN). Between this first coupling and the first shutdown – called “complete visit 1” – scheduled for 2026, the EPR should have produced around 14 TWh. Still far from its full capacity. The duration of the first stop is still being studied.
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