In recent months, EDF and its partners have conducted a comprehensive review of the Flamanville EPR project and of the project organisation, with a view to improving construction site management until commissioning has been completed.
A new organisational structure has been set up and implemented:
- complete review of the project organisation and working methods, centred around streamlined management reporting directly to Xavier Ursat, Group Senior Executive VP in charge of New Nuclear Projects and Engineering, and Jean-Bernard Lévy, the EDF Chairman and CEO;
- setting up of new ways of connecting EDF with its partners, to provide close leadership, coordination and monitoring of the project;
- enhanced accountability on site and stronger managerial presence as the construction phase comes to a close and test preparation gets underway;
- new contractual frameworks with key suppliers;
- enhanced dialogue with the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), particularly in respect of the new regulation on nuclear pressure equipment.
Significant progress has been made on the construction site recently. 98% of the building civil structure has been completed, as has 60% of the electromechanical erection. Pre-stressing operations on the reactor building inner containment have been carried out, and the control room has been commissioned. In the first quarter of 2015, EDF submitted its commissioning application file to the ASN.
The new roadmap, to which EDF and its partners are committed, aims to optimise the management of the project. The new timetable sets outs three key milestones:
- primary circuit mechanical erection to be finalised in the first quarter of 2016;
- electromechanical erection to be completed and system performance testing to begin in the first quarter of 2017;
- first fuel loading and start-up of the reactor in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Following assessment of all the industrial and financial parameters, project costs have been revised to € 10.5 billion1.
Jean-Bernard Lévy, EDF Chairman and Managing Director, commented, “I have reviewed the Flamanville EPR project in detail, and I am absolutely confident that it will be a success. It is a priority for EDF and of critical importance for the French nuclear industry and its success internationally. Our teams and those of our partners, particularly AREVA, are working to complete this project together in compliance with the most stringent nuclear and industrial safety standards. All of the experience gained at Flamanville will be invaluable for other EPR projects, such as Hinkley Point. Together with renewable energies, new nuclear build is an asset for successful energy transition to which EDF is fully committed.”
1 In euros 2015