The full cost of building the Flamanville 3 EPR has risen again and is now estimated at EUR 8 billion ($10.5bn), a 33 per cent increase on the EUR 6 billion price-tag announced last summer, EDF has revealed. The announcement came five years to the day (4 December) after pouring of first nuclear concrete at the site in France, where first electricity production is still scheduled for 2016, according to EDF.
Some 93% of the civil engineering has been completed and 36% of the electro-mechanical equipment is in place at the Flamanville site in northern France, EDF said. It partly blamed safety improvement modifications in the wake of Fukushima for the EUR 2 billion rise in the construction cost estimate.
“Over and above this ‘first of a kind’ effect, other factors have also had a bearing on the total cost of construction for the Flamanville EPR. The development of the boiler design, additional engineering studies, the integration of new regulatory requirements and everything learned in the wake of Fukushima have also been taken into account,” EDF said.
The news of the price increase came simultaneously with an announcement from Italian utility Enel that it is pulling out of the Flamanville 3 project, and from another five EPR power plants that were to be built in France under a 2007 strategic agreement.
Enel blamed the decision on cost over-runs and delays, a significant drop in power demand and the uncertain timeframe for other nuclear investments in France. It also noted that Italy’s decision to scrap nuclear power development following a referendum in June 2011 “diminished the strategic relevance of the overall partnership framework.”
By exiting the Flamanville 3 project, Enel will be reimbursed around EUR 613 million plus interest for the prepaid expenses related to its 12.5% stake in the project.
In response to EDF’s announcement, reactor vendor AREVA said that the cost of completing Flamanville 3 “is not representative of the price of an EPR reactor in the series offered in the market today,” because it had “not benefited from experience gained on the Finnish construction project for reasons of industrial organisation and schedule.”
AREVA said that the total construction time for the Taishan 1&2 EPR reactors in China should be 40% shorter than for OL3, taking full advantage of the construction experience from both previous projects.
Of the four EPR reactors currently under construction Taishan 1 and 2 are currently expected to begin commercial operation in December 2013, and October 2014, respectively; Olkiluoto 3 is expected to be ready for regular electricity production after 2014; while Flamanville should start generating power in 2016.
