EDF wants to reduce the construction time of a nuclear power plant to less than six years

To carry out this first large-scale program in decades, which provides for the construction of six EPR2 reactors and an option for eight others, Mr. Rémont recalled the challenge of "bringing the nuclear power industry back to industrial scale". the construction of nuclear power, in front of the French bosses brought together by Medef for its traditional back-to-school meetings, in Paris.

“We have a construction industry which once, around thirty years ago, built five reactors per year in our country and which was then asked to build one reactor over two decades,” recalled Mr. Rémont.

This fact, and the resulting loss of know-how, is often cited to explain the colossal lengthening of the construction of the first generation EPR reactor at Flamanville, which has just been completed 12 years behind schedule. initial, and whose coupling to the electricity network is expected by the end of the summer.

If this construction industry "is not yet on an industrial scale today", "the challenge" of the program of six reactors plus eight as an option is "to bring it back to the industrial scale", estimated Mr. Rémont.

While the delivery of the Flamanville EPR reactor took nearly seventeen years compared to five years initially planned, the long-term objective "is 70 months for construction, which is a very significant shortening compared to the last achievements,” he added.

To do this, he relies on the practice in real conditions of the group's engineers and technicians and its subcontractors: "as in any industry, when we repeat a gesture, we accelerate it, we improve its quality of execution".

This optimized delay “will not be the case on the first which will be the first in its series, obviously”, clarified Mr. Rémont.