The first nuclear reactor in France in 25 years, EDF’s Flamanville EPR nuclear reactor, has been connected to the French national grid and has generated 100 megawatts of electricity, the fourth EPR nuclear reactor in operation in the world after China and Finland, and the most powerful nuclear reactor in France, expected to provide electricity for about 2 million households.
Nuclear Power Plant Construction in France
The EPR is a reactor jointly developed by Framatome and Siemens. In January 2001, Framatome merged with Siemens Nuclear Power to form Framatome Advanced Nuclear Energy (a subsidiary of the AREVA Group), and EDF and major German power companies also participated in the design of the engineering.
The reactor started up 12 years later than originally planned, mainly due to frequent technical problems that led to a sharp increase in project costs. EDF currently estimates the total cost of the project at €13.2 billion, four times the original budget of €3.3 billion. French President Emmanuel Macron called it a great moment for the whole country. The CEO of EDF said it was a historic event for the entire nuclear industry in France.
EPR is a new generation of pressurized water reactors with a power of up to 1,600 MW. French President Macron had previously decided to advance nuclear energy construction and asked EDF to build more EPR2 reactors, but the start-up plan of the Flamanville EPR was drawn up long before Macron’s decision. After the first grid connection, the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor will go through several stages until the commissioning phase is completed in the summer of 2025. After the commissioning, the reactor is planned to operate at 100% full power until the first scheduled shutdown for maintenance and refueling, the first comprehensive inspection (VC1).
EPR meets all the requirements set out by European power companies in the “European User Requirements Document” and meets the nuclear safety standards set by the French Nuclear Safety Authority for future pressurized water reactor nuclear power plants. At the same time, EPR improves the economic competitiveness of nuclear power, and the cost of power generation by EPR will be 10% lower than that of the N4 series.
Main Features of EPR
EPR is developed on the basis of the latest reactors in the world (N4 in France and the recently built Konvoi reactor in Germany), drawing on the experience of more than 30 years of operation of nuclear power plants. EPR is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary product, maintaining the continuity of technology and without the problem of technological discontinuity. EPR adopts the technological innovations of the French Atomic Energy Commission and the German Nuclear Energy Research and Development Agency. EPR is a new generation of reactors with higher economic and technical performance. EPR reduces the cost of power generation, makes full use of nuclear fuel (UO2 or MOX), reduces the production of long-lived waste, is more flexible in operation, more convenient for maintenance, and greatly reduces the radioactive dose of operating and maintenance personnel.
EPR is a pressurized water reactor technology. All nuclear power plants in operation in France are pressurized water reactors. At present, there are 440 nuclear power units in operation in the world, of which 209 are pressurized water reactors. Pressurized water reactors are the most widely used reactor type in the world. The EPR can use all types of PWR fuel: low-enriched uranium fuel (5%), recycled fuel (re-enriched uranium from reprocessing, or plutonium uranium oxide fuel MOX from reprocessing). The EPR core can be fully loaded with MOX fuel. This can achieve the goal of stabilizing or even reducing the plutonium inventory on the one hand, and also reduce the production of waste. The EPR has an electrical power of about 1600 MW. Regions with large-scale power grids are suitable for the construction of such large-capacity units. In addition, regions with high population density and few sites are also suitable for large-capacity units. In the next 20 years, more than half of the new nuclear power plants will be built in such regions. The technical life of the EPR is 60 years, while the technical life of the reactors currently in operation is 40 years. Due to improvements in equipment, the EPR can operate for 40 years without replacing heavy equipment.
EPR Has Higher Safety
The EPR meets the requirements of the French and German nuclear safety authorities to strengthen the prevention of events that may damage the core and mitigate the radioactive effects of core melts, and has higher safety.
Strengthening the prevention of core damage events: safety functions are ensured through simplified design, diversified functions and redundant systems. The EPR is equipped with four identical safety systems, which have the function of cooling the core in abnormal conditions. Each system can fully independently perform its safety functions. The four systems are located in four plant buildings, and strict partitioned physical protection is implemented. When a system fails due to internal events (floods, fires, etc.) or external events (earthquakes), another system replaces the faulty system to perform safety functions and achieve a safe shutdown of the reactor. These structural safety systems will reduce the extremely low probability of core damage in operating pressurized water reactors by 10.
The containment has a very high sealing: in the event of core damage, defensive protection measures will be taken for residents and the environment to prevent them from being affected. The sealing level of the EPR is unique in the world. The reactor building is very solid, with a concrete base of 6 meters thick, and the containment is double-layered, with the inner shell being a prestressed concrete structure and the outer shell being a reinforced concrete structure, both with a thickness of 1.3 meters. The 2.6-meter-thick containment can resist external invasions such as plane crashes. Even if a meltdown accident with a very low probability occurs, the pressure vessel is melted through, and the molten core escapes from the pressure vessel, the molten material is still sealed in a special area for cooling. The inner wall of this special area uses ultra-high temperature protection materials to ensure the sealing performance of the concrete bottom plate. The impact of the EPR meltdown accident is strictly limited to the reactor containment, and the residents, soil and aquifers around the nuclear power plant are protected.
Reduce the radiation dose of operation and maintenance personnel: The radiation protection work of EPR operation and maintenance personnel will be further strengthened: the collective dose target is set at 0.4 man-sievert/reactor-year, which will be more than doubled compared with the current average dose of nuclear power plants in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (1 man-sievert/reactor-year).
EPR is More Environmentally Friendly
The advantage of nuclear power is that it does not emit carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, dust and other greenhouse gases. EPR has made important progress in sustainable development. The core design of EPR is conducive to improving fuel utilization, reducing the use of uranium, reducing the production of plutonium and long-lived waste; it is conducive to controlling and reducing plutonium reserves. Since the technical life of EPR will reach 60 years, the amount of final waste after EPR decommissioning will be reduced when producing the same amount of electricity. The use of energy such as nuclear energy is conducive to the storage of fossil fuels that will gradually be exhausted in the middle of this century.
