Antinuclear

The French utility announced on Tuesday that it expects 1,600-megawatt Areva-designed EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville,France, to be connected to the grid in 2017, instead of 2016.

That pushed back the production of the first megawatt of electricity to the last year of President Francois Hollande’s mandate, which terminates in May 2017. Closing the Fessenheim plant on the German border was a campaign pledge of Hollande’s.

The delay gave rise to talk that EDF could avoid closing the Fessenheim nuclear plant altogether if anew centre-right government came to power in May 2017 and repealed the energy transition law that caps nuclear capacity at 63.2 gigawatts.

But Jean-Michel Malerba, who is in charge of closing the 1,600-MW reactor, told Reuters that EDF will still have to request a production permit for Flamanville some 18 months before start-up and will also have to request a production withdrawal permit for the equivalent capacity in 2015.

“EDF will have to ask for a production authorisation for Flamanville in 2015, even if the start-up date is a bit delayed, and on that occasion they will have to declare which reactors they want to shut to obtain that authorisation,” he said.

The official said Article 55 of the energy transition bill, which won approval from the lower house of parliament last month, requires EDF to request a production authorisation no later than 18 months before April 2017.

Energy Minister Segolene Royal suggested in September that keeping Fessenheim open, where half a billion euros ($630 million) of maintenance investment has been made in recent years, was a possibility. (Reporting by Michel Rose)