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levels. It now looks plausible that EDF will attempt to extend lifetimes of some units, while others<br />
might be closed prior to reaching the 40-year age limit. But there is still no plan.<br />
If the French Government and state controlled utility Électricité de France (EDF) in 2005 opted to<br />
proceed with the construction of a new unit, EDF would be motivated not by lack of generating<br />
capacity but by the industry’s serious problem of maintaining nuclear competence. In December<br />
2007, EDF started construction of Flamanville-3 (FL3). The FL3 site has encountered qualitycontrol<br />
problems including basic concrete and welding similar to those at the OL3 project in<br />
Finland, which started two-and-a-half years earlier.<br />
The Flamanville-3 project is now at least six years late—one year more since WNISR2015—and<br />
now expected to “load fuel and start up” until the fourth trimester 2018. 734<br />
In April 2015 the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) revealed that the bottom piece and the<br />
lid of the FL3 pressure vessel had “very serious” defects. 735 Chemical and mechanical tests<br />
“revealed the presence of a zone in which there was a high carbon concentration, leading to lower<br />
than expected mechanical toughness values”. 736 Both pieces were fabricated and assembled by<br />
AREVA in France, while the center piece was forged by Japan Steel Works (JSW) in Japan. ASN<br />
stated then that the same fabrication procedure by AREVA's Creusot Forge was applied to “certain<br />
calottes” (also called bottom heads and closure heads) of the two pressure vessels made for the<br />
two EPRs under construction at Taishan in China, while the EPR under construction in Finland<br />
was entirely manufactured in Japan. It is unclear, which of the four bottoms and lids have been<br />
manufactured by Creusot Forge, but likely at least the ones for Taishan-1, while, according to<br />
AREVA 737 and media reports 738 , the pressure vessel for Taishan-2 has been manufactured by<br />
Chinese company Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC). However, no specific mention is made of<br />
the vessel bottoms and lids.<br />
AREVA's challenge is now to prove that, although clearly below technical specifications, the EPR<br />
pressure vessels could withstand any major transient and submitted a proposal for a major test<br />
program to ASN in late 2015. In December 2015, ASN approved the program, considering that the<br />
“test program proposed on two scale-one replica domes should be able to assess the scale and<br />
depth of the segregated zone as well as its influence on the mechanical properties”. In other words,<br />
AREVA will sacrifice two vessel heads that had already been manufactured for a never-built<br />
reactor project in the U.S. (Calvert Cliffs) and a maybe-built EPR at Hinkley Point in the U.K.<br />
ASN added:<br />
I would however remind you that rejection of the RPV closure head and bottom head further to the<br />
investigation cannot be ruled out. This is why I consider it necessary for you to study all alternative<br />
734 EDF, “Rapport Annuel 2015”, February 2016.<br />
735 Usine Nouvelle, “Le cri d'alarme de l'ASN sur le nucléaire français”, 20 January 2016, see<br />
http://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-cri-d-alarme-de-l-asn-sur-le-nucleaire-francais.N374729, accessed<br />
11 June 2016.<br />
736 ASN, “Flamanville EPR reactor vessel manufacturing anomalies”, Press Release, 7 April 2015, see<br />
http://www.french-nuclear-safety.fr/Information/News-releases/Flamanville-EPR-reactor-vesselmanufacturing-anomalies,<br />
accessed 11 June 2016.<br />
737 AREVA, “Taishan 1&2 - China—AREVA Supply Chain”, undated, see<br />
http://www.areva.com/EN/operations-2404/china-taishan-12.html#tab=tab5, accessed 2 July 2016.<br />
738 Factwire, “Made in China: critical component of Taishan nuclear plant manufactured in Guangzhou”,<br />
27 May 2016, see https://www.factwire.news/en/Taishan-nuclear-tech.html, accessed 2 July 2016.<br />
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 180 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016