Cour de comptes says ‘accumulation of risks and constraints could lead to failure of EPR2 programme’
France is “far from ready” to build six new nuclear plants and any final investment decisions for EPR2 deployment programmes should be held back until financing has been secured and detailed studies carried out to assess the projects, the state’s state auditor said in a report on 14 January.
The Cour des comptes also said French nuclear company EDF should not make a final investment decision in the UK’s Sizewell C reactor project until it has reduced its exposure to its other British development, Hinkley Point C.
The Cour des comptes noted that EDF has still not provided a forecast profitability of the EPR2 programme and the financing of the reactors remains unclear.
It said that once the funding model is announced there is likely to be a delay of at least one year while approval from the European Commission is sought for the state funding.
“These delays and uncertainties (which affect also the number of power plants to be built) reduce the visibility of which the actors of the sector need to engage in the industrial projects of this magnitude and obtain financing,” the Cour des comptes said.
“The accumulation of risks and constraints could lead to a failure of the EPR2 programme.”
In July 2023, EDF filed an application to build the first pair of EPR2 nuclear power plants at Penly, part of a 2022 programme by president Emmanuel Macron for a “rebirth” of France’s nuclear industry with the possible construction of 14 EPR2 units and operating extensions for older nuclear plants from 40 years to 50 years or more.
First Pair Of ER2 Plants Planned For Penly
EDF is initially planning to build three pairs of EPR2 plants with the first pair at Penly followed by a pair each at the Gravelines nuclear site, northeast of Penly near Calais, and either Bugey, to the east of Lyon, or Tricastin, south of Lyon near Avignon.
EDF said that defining financing and regulation schemes with the state was a prerequisite for its final investment decision on the EPR2 programme.
EDF plans to take a final investment decision on the programme in early 2026.
The Cour des comptes also criticised the long-delayed Flamanville-3 project in northern France, which was recently connected to the grid, 12 years behind schedule.
Cour des comptes president Pierre Moscovici said that it forecasts a “mediocre profitability” for the project with the data it has available, adding that EDF had refused to provide it with information about the profitability of the plant. It forecast the energy group would never recover its capital investment.
The Flamanville-3 EPR – on which the new EPR2 technology is based – is France’s 57th commercial nuclear power plant and its most powerful in terms of capacity at 1,630 MW net. Its share of generation from its fleet of 56 nuclear plants last year was about 62% – the highest in the world.
EDF is initially planning to build three pairs of EPR2 plants with the first pair at the Penly nuclear site. Courtesy Sfen.
