The Flamanville EPR authorized despite a defective cover (Reporterre.net)

EPR cover

EDF will light theEPR de Flamanville with a defective cover, while the new part must be delivered this summer. A choice that exposes workers to additional radiation and creates dangerous radioactive waste.

Tuesday May 7, 2024, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) gave his agreement for which'EPR de Flamanville is put into service, that is to say so that it receives its first load of fuel. After seventeen years of a project that turned into an ordeal and dizzying cost spirals — 19,1 billion euros instead of the 3,3 initially planned - the most powerful nuclear reactor in France should be connected to the network this summer. According to The Channel Press, Emmanuel Macron in person should come and attend the « Beginning phase » and a launch evening would be scheduled at the Cité de la mer in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

Twelve years late in lighting, it is beforehand difficult to speak of a rushed start. « There are still small things that leave us skeptical », said Reporterre Guy Vastel, member of the Association for the Control of Radioactivity in the West (Acro) and of the Local Information Commission (CLI) from Flamanville. At the heart of its concerns: the choice ofEDF not to replace the defective lid of the tank of theEPR before its commissioning, but at the end of the first operating cycle at the end of 2025. This decision involves the exposure of workers to additional radioactivity and additional radioactive waste to be managed. This, while the new tank cover must be delivered at the end of summer 2024, around the same time as the planned connection of theEPR to the network.