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Flamanville, France: The project was planned to involve around €3.3 billion of capital expenditure from EDF, but latest cost estimates (from 2019) are at €12.4

Flamanville, France: The project was planned to involve around €3.3 billion of capital expenditure from EDF, but latest cost estimates (from 2019) are at €12.4 billion. Pierre Moscovici, president of the Court of Audit, gave a statement on 9 July 2020 concerning the release of the report on the delay costs of the Flamanville 3. The report of the Court of Audit reveals that the cost of Flamanville 3 could reach €19.1 billion when taking in account the additional charges due to the delay in construction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Flamanville_3_(France) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Flamanvi...

realusername 6y ago
This one is a bit different though, it's the first of a kind of a new design (so count a lot of R&D there) and the original schedule was very unrealistic, not sure why anybody agreed on a timescale so short for a new design in the first place.
- dv_dt 6y ago
  France hasn't built any reactors of the old design in what decades?
- CogentHedgehog 6y ago
  Worth noting that Unit 3 at Olkiluoto in Finland was started before Flamanville and it hit massive cost overruns and delays as well. It was another EPR -- it's not like Flamanville was the very first build of this design, they had another to learn with.
  - cbmuser 6y ago
    You should also add that China started to build two EPRs after France and Finnland and they are both already operating commercially.
    - bobthepanda 6y ago
      They were both also late and over budget though. Less so than the two European units, but still. https://archive.is/MT9fA#selection-2255.0-2337.266 https://archive.is/MT9fA#selection-2255.0-2337.266 > CGN Power, the listed unit of state-owned China General Nuclear Power, China’s largest nuclear power projects developer, has announced a 17 per cent capital increase at its Taishan nuclear project, raising concern cost overruns and commissioning delays will continue. > The company will inject 2.94 billion yuan into its 51 per cent-held unit Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture, which will see the unit’s total registered capital to 28.6 billion yuan from 24.4 billion yuan, the company said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse late on Tuesday. Provincial government-controlled Guangdong Yudean, the province’s largest power producer, owns 19 per cent stake, and CGN’s French technology partner EDF holds 30 per cent stake. > CGN said the capital injection serves “to enhance its financing ability so as to meet its fund requirements for engineering construction.” > The project, which CGN said on track to become the world’s first third-generation nuclear reactor built on the European pressurised reactors (EPR) design to achieve commercial operation, was originally expected to have its first generating unit come online in December 2013 followed by the second in October 2014. > The timetable of the two units subsequently slipped to the first and second half of this year, and further to the first and second half of next year after “comprehensive evaluation on subsequent engineering construction plan and relevant risks,” said CGN a year ago.
    - CogentHedgehog 6y ago
      China's nuclear industry and the way the government interacts with it is just... very different from pretty much any other country. This is true of some of their other sectors. Yes, they can do some things incredibly quickly by more or less ramming them through at top speed using a combination of government and state-affiliated corporations. But the ways they achieve those results at speed are not necessarily transferable to other countries. I also get a bit nervous about how fast they've scaled their nuclear sector and pumped out plants. It reminds me a bit of the big historical push the USSR did into nuclear tech -- which culminated in the Chernobyl incident because they overlooked issues they should not have in order to keep things moving fast. A lot of technology and engineering lessons have been learned since those days... and so far I haven't heard anything specifically concerning about China's nuclear reactor fleet. But there's always going to be a little doubt in the back of my mind.
manfredo 6y ago
Flamanville is one of the first EPRs built by France. The bulk of its nuclear fleet were built on serial production of the same design. 34 900 MWe reactors and 20 1300 MWe reactors make up the bulk of its generation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France#Technical_overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France#Techni...
- CogentHedgehog 6y ago
  Unit 3 at Olkiluoto in Finland was started before Flamanville and it hit massive cost overruns and delays as well. It was another EPR -- it's not like Flamanville was the very first build of this design, they had another to learn with.
  - cbmuser 6y ago
    Yes, and two EPRs up and running in Taishan, China, that were started after the two you mentioned.

realusername 6y ago

This one is a bit different though, it's the first of a kind of a new design (so count a lot of R&D there) and the original schedule was very unrealistic, not sure why anybody agreed on a timescale so short for a new design in the first place.

dv_dt 6y ago
France hasn't built any reactors of the old design in what decades?
CogentHedgehog 6y ago
Worth noting that Unit 3 at Olkiluoto in Finland was started before Flamanville and it hit massive cost overruns and delays as well. It was another EPR -- it's not like Flamanville was the very first build of this design, they had another to learn with.
- cbmuser 6y ago
  You should also add that China started to build two EPRs after France and Finnland and they are both already operating commercially.
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    They were both also late and over budget though. Less so than the two European units, but still. https://archive.is/MT9fA#selection-2255.0-2337.266 https://archive.is/MT9fA#selection-2255.0-2337.266 > CGN Power, the listed unit of state-owned China General Nuclear Power, China’s largest nuclear power projects developer, has announced a 17 per cent capital increase at its Taishan nuclear project, raising concern cost overruns and commissioning delays will continue. > The company will inject 2.94 billion yuan into its 51 per cent-held unit Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture, which will see the unit’s total registered capital to 28.6 billion yuan from 24.4 billion yuan, the company said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse late on Tuesday. Provincial government-controlled Guangdong Yudean, the province’s largest power producer, owns 19 per cent stake, and CGN’s French technology partner EDF holds 30 per cent stake. > CGN said the capital injection serves “to enhance its financing ability so as to meet its fund requirements for engineering construction.” > The project, which CGN said on track to become the world’s first third-generation nuclear reactor built on the European pressurised reactors (EPR) design to achieve commercial operation, was originally expected to have its first generating unit come online in December 2013 followed by the second in October 2014. > The timetable of the two units subsequently slipped to the first and second half of this year, and further to the first and second half of next year after “comprehensive evaluation on subsequent engineering construction plan and relevant risks,” said CGN a year ago.
  - CogentHedgehog 6y ago
    China's nuclear industry and the way the government interacts with it is just... very different from pretty much any other country. This is true of some of their other sectors. Yes, they can do some things incredibly quickly by more or less ramming them through at top speed using a combination of government and state-affiliated corporations. But the ways they achieve those results at speed are not necessarily transferable to other countries. I also get a bit nervous about how fast they've scaled their nuclear sector and pumped out plants. It reminds me a bit of the big historical push the USSR did into nuclear tech -- which culminated in the Chernobyl incident because they overlooked issues they should not have in order to keep things moving fast. A lot of technology and engineering lessons have been learned since those days... and so far I haven't heard anything specifically concerning about China's nuclear reactor fleet. But there's always going to be a little doubt in the back of my mind.

manfredo 6y ago

Flamanville is one of the first EPRs built by France. The bulk of its nuclear fleet were built on serial production of the same design. 34 900 MWe reactors and 20 1300 MWe reactors make up the bulk of its generation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France#Technical_overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France#Techni...

CogentHedgehog 6y ago
Unit 3 at Olkiluoto in Finland was started before Flamanville and it hit massive cost overruns and delays as well. It was another EPR -- it's not like Flamanville was the very first build of this design, they had another to learn with.
- cbmuser 6y ago
  Yes, and two EPRs up and running in Taishan, China, that were started after the two you mentioned.