France connected its most powerful nuclear reactor to the national electricity grid on Saturday, a move its leaders saw as a milestone despite years of delays and technical setbacks.
The European Flamanville 3 pressure reactor in Normandy began supplying electricity to French homes at 11:48 a.m. (1048 GMT) on Saturday, Luc Remont, CEO of energy company EDF, said in a statement.
“A great moment for the country,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement about X, calling it “one of the most powerful nuclear reactors in the world.”
“Reindustrialization to produce low-carbon energy is an ecological French style,” he added.
The EPR, a next-generation pressurized water reactor, is the fourth to be completed anywhere in the world.
EDF’s Remont called the event ‘historic’.
“The last time a reactor was started up in France was 25 years ago at Civaux 2,” he said, referring to the Civaux power plant in southwestern France.
The connection was initially scheduled to take place on Friday.
With 1,600 MW, it is the most powerful reactor in the country. Ultimately, it should provide more than two million households with electricity.
The start-up is 12 years behind schedule after a plethora of technical setbacks pushed the project’s cost to an estimated 13.2 billion euros ($13.76 billion), four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion euros .
The start-up began on September 3, but had to be interrupted the next day due to an “automatic shutdown”. It resumed a few days later.
Production has been gradually increased to connect the reactor to the electricity grid.
Nuclear energy accounts for about three-fifths of France’s energy production and the country has one of the largest nuclear energy programs in the world.
This is in stark contrast to neighboring Germany, which left nuclear energy last year by closing its last three reactors.
Macron has decided to ramp up nuclear power to strengthen France’s energy sustainability, ordering six EPR2 reactors and laying options for another eight, which could cost tens of billions of euros.
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