Yves Marignac is director of Wise Paris, an independent consulting firm on nuclear issues. For this advisor to various institutions such as the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) or the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the welds of the EPR Flamanville (Channel) represent the problem too much, for a nuclear industry that he considers “adrift”. EDF announced on April 11 new delays, so new additional costs, for the EPR Flamanville reactor. Will we see this project succeed one day? YVES MARIGNAC. The question is more important than ever. The solder defects diagnosed on the secondary circuit discharging steam to the turbine, it is definitely drift too much . Especially since it is not an isolated problem. It occurs after more than a decade of delays, poor workmanship and negligence in design and monitoring. This illustrates the excesses of this entire industry. EDF miraculously hung up on the branches several times, each time trying to show that gross errors in quality would not have an impact on safety. And we let it go. But this time, the quality problem is such that it can not pass. The ASN will probably give its opinion in the coming weeks but the nuclear policeman should logically demand to completely redo the welds, and in particular the eight most problematic welds.
Le Parisien 25th April 2019 read more »
