The Flamanville EPR shut down for a regulatory inspection and replacement of the defective cover

The Flamanville EPR in Manche will be shut down from Saturday September 26, 2026. A new episode in the history of this installation delivered in 2024, 12 years late. The shutdown of this new generation reactor is not linked to a breakdown, it is a forced rest.

The figures are enough to understand the scale of this inspection: 20,000 inspection and maintenance operations will be carried out. Just to check all the taps, 24,000 hours of work are planned. This is a regulatory operation, since each new reactor must undergo this first complete inspection, 30 months after its start-up.

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EDF estimates the total bill at several million euros, 2,500 people and 200 companies will be mobilized. 40% of operations will be carried out by local companies, promises the French energy company.

During this shutdown, an important part of the EPR will be changed, the imposing steel cover which covers the reactor vessel, where the nuclear fuel is placed. The part has been defective from the start and this is one of the notable episodes of this ordeal.

An extraordinary technical and logistical challenge

The nuclear safety authority has requested its replacement, but the operation is delicate, because it is an enormous piece of metal which measures six meters in diameter and weighs nearly 100 tonnes. It is forged in the Framatome factory in Le Creusot, in Saône-et-Loire. It will have to be hoisted after removing the old cover, which, once dismantled, will become the largest French nuclear waste. He will stay two years in Flamanville before being sent to Aube, to one of the sites of the radioactive waste management agency.

Since its commissioning, the Flamanville EPR has been the most powerful in the French nuclear fleet. It has produced 7 terawatt hours of electricity since January. This represents the consumption of one and a half million households each year and the objective has been achieved, welcomes EDF. This new generation reactor was commissioned in 2024, after 12 years of delay, for a total bill of 13 billion euros which far exceeds the 3.5 billion euros initially announced.