Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThe World's Largest Nuclear Power Producer Is Melting Down
On the shores of the English channel in Normandy, engineers are struggling to fix eight faulty welds at a plant thats supposed to showcase Frances savoir faire in nuclear power.
As they consider sending in robots to access hard-to-get-to areas between two containment walls, for Electricite de France its just the latest setback in a project thats running a decade late and almost four times over budget.
We hear every year that theres a new problem, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. It is not acceptable that one of the most prestigious and strategic sectors for our country is facing so many difficulties.
The Flamanville plant is now slated to be completed in 2022 at a price tag of 12.4 billion euros ($13.8 billion), with the latest glitch costing a whopping 1.5 billion euros. Bemoaning the loss of Frances edge in the sector because of a 15-year gap between the start of construction at the plant and that of the previous reactor, Le Maire has given EDF a month to come up with an action plan to restore the industrys know-how before the country can determine whether it will build any new atomic plants.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-31/the-world-s-largest-nuclear-power-producer-is-melting-down
Crazyleftie
(458 posts)BTW, is France still dumping nuclear waste into the Atlantic?
progree
(10,904 posts)A year ago, EDF was Europes biggest utility by market value. Now, its market capitalization stands at 28 billion euros, less than half that of Italys Enel SpA, which has swelled to 69 billion euros on the success of its renewable business. RWE AG, the German utility planning to shut down its nuclear plants and progressively phase out coal-fired plants, is up 43% this year and Orsted A/S, the Danish champion in offshore wind, whose revenue is about a sixth of EDFs, has surpassed the French giant.