Nuclear decommissioning: “Nothing happened as planned” – Challenges.fr

Why conduct a report today on the dismantling of nuclear power plants ?

Because 80% of French nuclear reactors coming to the end of the operating lifetime as originally foreseen, which was forty years. And also because in 2015, has been voted a law on the energy transition and the green growth, which provides for a reduction from 75% to 50% of the share of nuclear energy in electricity production in France by 2025.

The French industry she anticipated the dismantling of power stations?

No, that is for the nine oldest reactors, all of which are in the judgment that for the fleet of 58 nuclear reactors, which were built between 1977 and 1987 and that works today. For the first fleet, nothing happened as expected. Especially for the six reactors of the graphite-gas. The dismantling was scheduled to be completed in 2041. But due to technical difficulties unresolved, EDF has indicated that it is delaying the end of the dismantling phase, to 2100. It took over a century to dismantle these plants. To date, EDF has not conducted any dismantling until its end.

And that is the dismantling of 58 nuclear reactors that operate today?

These are reactor water pressurized and after what we have said to our counterparts, EDF should technically be able to carry out the work. However, there is a difficulty, it is that the power plants were built at the same time, their dismantling should take place during the same period. Hence this question: will there be personnel and material and sufficient to do so? The technical feasibility is not, therefore, fully insured.

Have you measured the financial costs of the decommissioning?

The costs of decommissioning are likely to be under-valued and under-funded. EDF considers the dismantling to 75.5 billion euros, amount that will be disbursed gradually as the deconstruction of nuclear plants. As to provisions, they amounted to 36 billion.

counterparts electricians EDF provisionnent all the more…

Yes. It can be explained due to the park

standardized EDF, which can generate economies of scale. So far, the figures given by countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom can be taken seriously because they are based on quantities actually performed. In addition, in France there are loads that are not pre-funded. This is including taxes and insurance, of the evacuation of the spent fuel and land reclamation. Added to this are the optimistic assumptions of the EDF. In particular, a discount rate of 4.4% which is the highest in Europe. Finally, we express reservations on the method of calculation of the overall cost, called the method of Dampierre 2009, which is to take the cost of a reactor type for 900 MW, and multiply it by 58 to reach the total amount of 75.5 billion. This method does not take into account the history of each of the reactors, or the new security requirements related to the Fukushima disaster.

How EDF account to fund the decommissioning of its nuclear power plants?

The company is betting on a further prolongation of the lifetime of the nuclear fleet (forty to fifty years or sixty years, editor’s NOTE). This strategy allows you to spread out the dismantling to avoid the cliff, which obliges to do everything simultaneously. This bet seems to us surprising and bold because EDF has not received the endorsement technique of the Nuclear Safety Authority for the continuation and extension of these plants. It is therefore necessary to review this strategy of dismantling. Because if EDF is not able to finance the dismantling of nuclear power plants, it will be necessary for the State to be a substitute for it, that is to say, the taxpayer. It is therefore necessary to examine the role of the State shareholder, which owns 85% of EDF.