Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant

The Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant is located at Flamanville, Manche, France on the Cotentin Peninsula.

It houses two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that produce 1.3 GWe each and came into service in 1986 and 1987, respectively. It produced 18.9 TWh in 2005, which amounted to 4% of the electricity production in France. In 2006 this figure was about 3.3%.

File:Flamanville 1978, des explosifs détruisent la falaise et l'ancienne mine de fer sous-marine pour la centrale nucléaire.jpg

1978 picture showing the blasting that was done to demolish the cliffs and old, under-sea iron ore mines, before the reactors were built.

In 2006, before the start of construction of unit 3, there were 671 workers regularly working at the two operational reactors.

The safety of the Flamanville plant has been questioned due to the danger of flooding of the kind experienced during the 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood.

Unit 3

See also: European Pressurized Reactor § Flamanville 3 (EDF's first plant)

Construction on a new reactor, Flamanville 3, began on 4 December 2007. The new unit is an Areva European Pressurized Reactor type and is planned to have a nameplate capacity of 1,650 MWe.

EDF has previously said France's first EPR would cost €3.3 billion and start commercial operations in 2012, after construction lasting 54 months.

On 3 December 2012 EDF announced that the estimated costs have escalated to €8.5 billion ($11 billion), and the completion of construction is delayed to 2016. The next day the Italian power company Enel announced it was relinquishing its 12.5% stake in the project, and 5 future EPRs, so would be reimbursed its project stake of €613 million plus interest.

In November 2014 EDF announced that completion of construction was delayed to 2017 due to delays in component delivery by Areva.

In April 2015 Areva informed the French nuclear regulator, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN), that anomalies had been detected in the reactor vessel steel, causing "lower than expected mechanical toughness values". Further tests are underway. Segolene Royal, Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in the Second Valls Government, has asked the producer for further details and possible consequences.

In June 2015 multiple faults in cooling system safety valves were discovered by ASN.

In September 2015 EDF announced that the estimated costs had escalated to €10.5 billion, and the start-up of the reactor was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2018.

Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant at night

Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant at night