Nuclear: the dismantling puzzle for EDF
Boursorama with AFP the 12 / 01 / 2018
The task is immense to reform the oldest reactors in service in France, 2e world producer of nuclear electricity. EDF appears confident despite delays and cost explosion.
EDF displays international ambitions in terms of nuclear decommissioning. But the sector has yet to prove its worth in France, the second largest producer of nuclear electricity in the world, where the task remains immense and the delays numerous. "We are dismantling nine reactors in France. We consider that our know-how can put us in a very good position to gain real good market shares internationally," said Sylvain Granger, director of deconstruction projects at EDF.
A "staggering" ambition for the former PS MP Barbara Romagnan, author of a parliamentary report which underlined, at the beginning of 2017, the "undervalued" costs and the growing delays of these projects. "None of these French reactors has yet been completely dismantled, although they were shut down between 1985 and 1997," she argues. Elsewhere in the world, 17 reactor vessels (over 100 megawatts, MW) have been dismantled, in the United States, Germany, and Spain, according to the Institute for Radiation Protection and Safety (IRSN).
AT CHOOZ, EDF "IS AHEAD" ON THE PLANNING
In Chooz (Ardennes), EDF's most advanced site, the dismantling of the vessel, the final and most delicate step, began in 2017. But the cutting of its internal components was suspended after the contamination, in June, a Swedish employee of Westinghouse, to whom EDF has subcontracted this operation. This level 1 incident on the Ines scale (International nuclear event scale, which classifies nuclear events from 0 to 7), has "no impact on the schedule", ensures EDF Sylvain Granger.
The tank itself will only be cut from mid-2019 to the end of 2020, for the work to be completed in 2022. But nearly 4.500 tonnes of radioactive waste were removed, or nearly 60% of the radioactive waste from this demolition, and EDF is "ahead of its schedule", adds the company. Eighty people work on this sub-contracted site mainly to Westinghouse (heavyweight in the sector), Nuvia (Vinci) and Polinorsud (New Areva). The bill should approach 500 million euros, according to EDF. With its 300 MW, "Chooz A" was three to five times less powerful than current reactors.
THE SUPERPHÉNIX EXPERIENCE
EDF also highlights the experience acquired with Superphénix, the 1.200 MW plutonium breeder located in Creys-Malville, 70 km from Lyon. "The Japanese are very interested", welcomes Sylvain Granger. On this site, nearly 6.000 m3 of sodium were evacuated from the reactor between 2010 and 2014, transformed into soda and trapped in 70.000 m3 of concrete. An extremely delicate operation because the sodium ignites on contact with water and air.
During the dismantling of a much smaller reactor (30 MW) but having, like Superphénix, the specificity of working with sodium, and called Rapsodie, an explosion had made a death in 1994 in Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône). But the dismantling of the giant tank (25 m diameter for 20 m high) of Superphénix should begin in 2020 and end in 2026, with six years behind schedule 2006.
EDF PASSED THREE TIMES IN 2017
And EDF, which had been sentenced in 2016 for not respecting a formal notice from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), was again pinned three times in 2017, a year marked by a "fire that affected waste polluted with sodium during the night of July 4 to 5 ". The nuclear gendarme raises problems of labeling waste, a lack of supervision of subcontractors, and "dysfunctions" during a crisis exercise. On this site, the dismantling bill is estimated at 1 to 2 billion euros, according to a parliamentary report. 350 people work on the breeder, including 80 EDF employees.
In addition, one of the subcontractors of the Superphenix New Areva site was pinned down in December, on the La Hague site (Manche), where nearly 600 people are working on the demolition of a former nuclear waste reprocessing plant. , for "failures", classified as a level 1 incident. There, around 7.000 m3 of waste were evacuated, according to New Areva. 43.000 m3 remain. The main dismantling activities are estimated at around 4 billion euros by 2035. A site which is delayed by fifteen years, according to the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).
AGING STRUCTURES
Another major delay, for six reactors of the so-called “natural uranium graphite gas” (UNGG) generation, EDF “postponed the overall end of dismantling until the beginning of the 2000st century”, according to ASN. These reactors in Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux (Loir-et-Cher), Bugey (Ain), and Chinon (Indre-et-Loire). In 2020, EDF promised a complete dismantling by 2025-XNUMX. This postponement, which "raises the question of the aging of the civil engineering structures of the reactor chambers", is linked to "technical feasibility problems", notes the IRSN, specifying that "there is no storage today. hui available for graphite ".
About 17.000 tons of radioactive graphite must leave the six power stations concerned, according to EDF, while the fate of the most radioactive nuclear waste is also not resolved. The volume of waste from dismantling is estimated at more than 2,3 million m3, according to the parliamentary report.
79 BILLION EUROS TO UNMOBILIZE ALL REACTORS
Another very late project, the dismantling of Brennilis (Finistère), "of great complexity" according to EDF, is today announced for after 2030, more than 45 years after the shutdown of this 70 MW reactor which has worked 18 years. This delay is linked to legal recourse, but also to incidents, such as a fire in the reactor enclosure in 2015.
As for the dismantling of the 58 reactors in operation, EDF wants to be "confident": their technology is the same as that of Chooz A (pressurized water reactors). But in the meantime, due to a lack of a timetable, the industrial nuclear dismantling sector, already facing recruitment problems, is slow to structure itself. EDF estimates 79 billion euros the cost of dismantling all its reactors in France, said Thursday, January 11, the company that spoke in 2000 16 billion euros.
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