Nuclear: EDF aims for mid-2024 to launch preparatory work on the Penly EPR

EDF plans to begin construction of the two nuclear reactors at Penly in mid-2024.

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EDF plans to start in mid-2024 the first preparatory works for the construction of the two new generation nuclear reactors EPR (EPR2) that the government envisages in Penly (Seine-Maritime), announced Tuesday the electricity producer.

“If the (political) decision is taken quickly, we aim to start preparatory work on this site in mid-2024, for commissioning by 2035-2037″, said Gabriel Oblin, project director for the EPR2 nuclear reactors.

The government wants to build six EPR2s, including the first two at Penly, with an option for eight more, according to a roadmap unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron in February.

This preparatory work, scheduled to last three years, includes “earthworks, preparation of the platform to build the nuclear facility,” Oblin said. Then, at the end of 2027, construction of the reactors will begin. A construction site which “in its high phase” in 2029 should mobilize a total of 7,500 people.

This timetable was specified during a press conference devoted to the two-year implementation of the Excell plan, an industrial improvement program in the nuclear sector.

This plan was born of the desire to avoid a repeat of the setbacks of the Flamanville EPR (Manche), the only one under construction in France, which is eleven years behind schedule and has astronomical budget overruns.

But if EDF intends to move quickly, other steps must be taken before the first work is launched at Penly.

The construction of new reactors is the subject of a debate under the aegis of the National Commission for Public Debate until February 27.

The summary of this debate, which is compulsory for the project leader EDF, will be included in the work of the members of parliament, who will have to vote on France’s energy roadmap by 2024 at the latest (setting the share of each energy in the national energy mix).

Without waiting, the government, which wants to “gain time”, presented on November 2 in the Council of Ministers its bill to accelerate the construction of new reactors, by simplifying administrative procedures.

This text must be examined by the parliamentarians at the beginning of 2023, or even at the end of December, first in the National Assembly.

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