Welding problems have caused a further six-month delay for France’s next-generation nuclear reactor at Flamanville, the latest setback for the flagship technology the country hopes to sell worldwide, state-owned electricity group Electricite de France SA (EDF) said on Friday.
The delay is also expected to add 500 million euros (US$529.92 billion) to a project whose total cost is now estimated at around 13 billion euros, blowing past the initial projection of 3.3 billion euros when construction began in 2007.
It comes as EDF is struggling to restart dozens of nuclear reactors that were shut for maintenance or safety work, which has proved more challenging than originally thought.
Photo: EPA-EFE
EDF also said that one of the two conventional reactors at Flamanville would not be brought back online until Feb. 19 instead of next week as planned, while one at Penly in northwest Farnce would be restarted on March 20 instead of in January.
The French government has said that power shortages might occur this winter because of the shutdowns at about 25 of the 56 reactors across the country that normally generate about 70 percent of the country’s electricity needs.
EDF said the latest problems at Flamanville, on the English Channel in Normandy, emerged last summer when engineers discovered that welds in cooling pipes for the new European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) were not tolerating extreme heat as expected.
As a result, the new reactor cannot start generating power until mid-2024.
The French-developed EPR was designed to relaunch nuclear power in Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe in Russia, and is touted as offering more efficient power output and better safety.
However, similar projects at Olkiluoto in Finland, Hinkley Point in Britain and the Taishan plant in China have also experienced production setbacks and delays, raising doubts about the viability of the new technology.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that he is aiming for a nuclear “renaissance” in which up to 14 new reactors would be built in France, as the country seeks to reduce its use of fossil fuels.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS