Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant
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Active reactors ( gross ):
Reactors under construction ( gross ):
The Flamanville nuclear power plant is located at the foot of a 70 meter high granite-like rock on the west coast of the French Cotentin Peninsula on the English Channel. The nuclear power plant consists of two operating pressurized water reactors, as well as an under construction since December 2007 reactor of the type European Pressurized Reactor (EPR ). The site is located in the town of Flamanville in the Basse-Normandie region in the department of Manche, about 25 kilometers west of Cherbourg and 20 kilometers south of the reprocessing plant at La Hague.
The plant employs approximately 700 people and is used by the state-dominated French company Electricité de France (EDF) operated. For cooling is used from the English Channel water.
The two pressurized water reactors have a net power output of 1330 megawatts ( MW) and a gross capacity of 1382 MW. The total installed capacity is 2764 MW; thus counts the nuclear power plant to the middle of France. Every year, it feeds an average of 18 billion kilowatt hours into the public power grid; this corresponds to the annual electrical energy requirements of the Regions Lower Normandy and Brittany. It thus provides approximately three percent of the French demand for electrical energy.
History
Construction of the first reactor block was on 1 December 1979, he went on 4 December 1985 in operation. In order to build the nuclear power plant had to be blown up a high cliff. With the building of the second reactor block was started on 1 May 1980 commissioning was on 18 July 1986.
Construction of a new European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR )
On 21 October 2004, the electricity company EDF announced the construction of a third reactor. This is the third generation of pressurized water reactors, the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR ), which has been developed since 1992 by the French nuclear holding company Areva and Siemens. This is considered to be the second of its type, according to the Finnish reactor 3 at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant taken ( under construction since August 12, 2005 ), in operation. The performance of the EPR reactor is said to be 1650 MW. Construction was expected on December 3, 2007 EDF / forecast originally a planned completion in 2012 and with construction costs in the amount of 3.3 billion euros.
End of 2008, Areva said that the construction being delayed until 2013, and the construction costs will amount to 4 billion euros. In the semi-annual financial statements for the first half of 2010, EDF wrote that the commercial operation will only expected for 2014 and estimated the cost to " about 5 billion euros ." In July 2011, EDF is expected to cost € 6 billion and moved the completion date has been for two years. The "first kWh of EPR will be produced in 2016 ." In December 2012, EDF announced that the cost of construction of the reactor has risen to 8.5 billion euros. In early December 2012, the Italian company Enel withdrew from financing the reactor. Enel justified the move so that the reactor due to the high investment costs will never be economical. The Group had held stake of 12.5%. Be hawked electricity production costs of about 7-10 cents / kWh over the entire operating period, the financial news service Bloomberg LP starts from about 7.2 cents / kWh.
The Supreme Court in France submitted January 31, 2012 in front of an extensive study on the costs of nuclear energy.
" The construction and planning costs ( 79 751 million € 2010), scaled down to the reactor power increased with time from 1.07 million € 2010/MW in 1978 ( Fessenheim ) to 2.06 € million 2010 2000 ( Chooz 1 and 2) or 1.37 € million 2010 2002 ( Civaux ) at an average of 1.25 million € 2010/MW for 58 reactors. This increase is mainly with the ever-increasing safety requirements related. Although a precise comparison is not possible because the final total costs of an EPR are unknown, the Cour des Comptes could find that construction costs increased in proportion to the power in MW with this new generation that had to meet from the beginning extensive safety requirements, further are. With an estimated construction cost of € 6 billion for the Flamanville EPR (first reactor of the series ) and a capacity of 1,630 MW amounted to € 3.7 million, the cost per MW. "
Security
In the case of a strong earthquake could lead to failure of the emergency cooling in the existing blocks. A report by the nuclear safety authority ASN in October 2002 show could be the operability of a safety valve which will ensure the cooling of the reactor units, an earthquake can not be ensured.
The planned EPR should nevertheless satisfy, among other things, by a double outer shell and a so-called core catcher highest safety standards. The latter is a ceramic basin can absorb a possible meltdown. The nuclear group Areva estimates in this type of reactor, the risk of accidents by ten times lower than in older generations. However, the EPR is designed only for a low-pressure core melt, but not to a high-pressure reactor-meltdown products. Here is provided to convert a possible high-pressure core melt by manually opening a valve in a low-pressure core melt.
Data of the reactor units
The Flamanville nuclear power plant has a total of two in operation and one under construction blocks Block: