EDF is seeking to delay by three years (i.e. until April 2020) the legal commissioning date for its third generation power nuclear Flamanville EPR project to have a security margin in case of problem. The decree authorising the Flamanville project was published on 11 April 2007 for a commissioning within a maximum of 10 years, i.e. until 11 April 2017. Successive technical difficulties have delayed the commissioning date to late 2018, prompting EDF to request a 36-month extension of the decree, i.e. until 11 April 2020.
In turn, the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy could force EDF to start the decommissioning process for the 1,760 MW Fessenheim nuclear power plant before the end of June 2016. The reactor was commissioned in 1978 and will reach its 40-year lifetime limit in 2018. Under the new energy transition act adopted in July 2015, nuclear power capacity in France will be capped at its current level of 63.2 GW, which will force EDF to stop two 900 MW reactors (the two 880 MW net reactors at Fessenheim) before commissioning its 1,650 MW Flamanville EPR.
The EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) project was initially scheduled to feed first power to grid in 2012, five years after the project launch. In addition, EDF announced the cost of the project was raised to €10.5bn, up from the initial budget of €3.3bn. The start of operations has been postponed several times, including the announcement of November 2014 that planned the commercial start-up in 2017. In early September 2015, the group postponed again the commissioning to 2018.
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