Quality deviations on certain welds of the secondary circuit at the Flamanville EPR: the investigation continues

On 10 April 2018, EDF informed the French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire) of a significant event relating to the detection of deviations during checks of certain welds of the main secondary circuit at the Flamanville EPR, and ordered a report analysing the causes and nature of these deviations.*
On the basis of the investigations carried out by EDF, discussions with the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire will continue for several more weeks.
The impact on the schedule and if necessary, on the cost of the Flamanville 3 project will be announced then.
As a delay of several months to the start-up of the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor is one of the possible outcomes, EDF is getting prepared to continue operating the two reactors at the Fessenheim nuclear power station until summer 2019.
*See EDF’s Press Release dated 10 April 2018