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France's most powerful nuclear reactor connected to grid after 17-year build (www.lemonde.fr)

submitted 2 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Summary

France’s Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor, its most powerful at 1,600 MW, was connected to the grid on December 21 after 17 years of construction plagued by delays and budget overruns.

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), designed to boost nuclear energy post-Chernobyl, is 12 years behind schedule and cost €13.2 billion, quadruple initial estimates.

President Macron hailed the launch as a key step for low-carbon energy and energy security.

Nuclear power, which supplies 60% of France’s electricity, is central to Macron’s plan for a “nuclear renaissance.”

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[-] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 7 hours ago

Lets hope this one stays in better condition than their other nuclear plants lol

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 25 points 20 hours ago

Good. Germany made a huge mistake for themselves and for all of Europe in shutting down their nuclear plants.

[-] Ross_audio@lemmy.world 25 points 19 hours ago

Except they were basically beyond design life.

And every new plant comes decades late and 4x the original budget.

[-] teslasaur@lemmy.world 11 points 17 hours ago

But they planned on replacing it with natural gas. Not to mention that it was supposed to be Russian gas. Sweden pays for the shitty decisions in Berlin.

[-] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 4 points 12 hours ago

Yeah, but the decision was made in 2011 after Fukushima, and before the Russian invasion in 2014. At this time it did make sense, gas was much cheaper and Germany still had an has no long term plan to deal with the nuclear waste.

[-] teslasaur@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

How does it make sense to compare yourself to a natural disaster that would be impossible on German land? Central Europe doesn't lie on one of the biggest fault lines in the world.

However, if you start talking about putting nuclear plant on Iceland you might rise a few eyebrows.

They didn't stop buying gas until the invasion 2022. Im not even sure that they don't do it now, just cant admit to it publically. And as a swede, i find it incredibly naive to trust any Russian government ever in the history of ever. There has never existed any trust between russia and Sweden/Finland. Only mutual assurance.

[-] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 6 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Sweden pays for having not enough inner country power lines. Look at the differences within their various market zones.

Case in point, base load prices for today:

[-] teslasaur@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Funny you mention market zones. They are an eu invention and we are forced to match prices because Germany can't pull they're own weight in the energy market.

Not to mention that the eu mandated market zones only applies when you aren't Germany, because of reasons.

[-] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 1 points 10 hours ago

EPEX SPOT SE is a company under European law based in Paris (France) with offices in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Berlin (Germany), Bern (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium), London (United Kingdom), and Vienna (Austria).[1] It operates the power spot markets for short-term trading in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

Not to mention that the eu mandated market zones only applies when you aren't Germany, because of reasons.

I don't see yet how one would arrive at that conclusion regarding EPEX. Please explain.

[-] teslasaur@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Germany doesn't have market zones. Cause it isn't in their interest to have them.

[-] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 2 points 9 hours ago

I'm counting nine countries though that don't have market zones:

And I'm not sure yet how high prices (or rather not high prices at the time of the screenshot) in southern Sweden are linked to Germany not being separated into more than one zone. If Sweden could transport their energy from North to South, the South would be able to use the cheaper energy from there, but apparently that isn't possible at the moment.

[-] teslasaur@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago

The main issue isn't transport. Its the fact that we are mandated to sell the excess to EU before we take care of our own.

[-] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 2 points 5 hours ago

Its the fact that we are mandated to sell the excess to EU before we take care of our own.

That doesn't really work that way and there is no forcing involved. Capacity is sold by the power plant operators and bought by the power companies who resell it then. As long as neighbouring zones pay more than Southern Sweden, power plant operators in Southern Sweden will sell their generation capacity at that higher price because they are not a charity but for profit companies.

Now, grid operators in Southern Sweden could show them the middle finger and buy capacity from Central Sweden, but that's apparently not possible because not enough power lines exist to actually transfer the energy from there. So, grid operators in the South are stuck with the higher prices that someone else pays as well.

And even if you just want to blame the Germans for everything, check the distribution of exports from the South Sweden zone before making that claim: https://app.electricitymaps.com

[-] Iceblade02@lemmy.world -1 points 8 hours ago

Expanding the transit lines at this point would only lead to German industry purchasing even more Swedish electricity, driving up the prices in the north of Sweden as well and killing the rest of the industrial base. The German effect deficit is larger than the entirety of the dispatchable electricity capacity in Sweden. In some 5-10 years, the northern surplus there will be used up anyway due to the electrification of the Swedish steel industry.

The ugly truth is that this situation will only be resolved when Germany take responsibility for their own grid, or the transmission lines get cut. The Swedish economy is highly electrified (~70% of energy consumed) and low carbon (~80% of energy consumed), especially when compared to Germany (~35% of energy as electricity, 25% low carbon).

One of the main differences is heating. Economically vulnerable Swedes are literally being driven out of their homes because of German electricity imports, which are enforced by the EU.

[-] zqps@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Fortunately these aren't the only options.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 6 points 20 hours ago

They have cheap Russian gas so who nee...

[-] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago

Nuclear plant construction delayed? Budget overrun? Even in one of the most nuclear developed countries in the world? Wooooow, what a surprise!!

[-] uis@lemm.ee 7 points 19 hours ago

its most powerful at 1,600 MW,

Fuck, that's 100 more MW than VVER-1500(project). Or 400 more than VVER-1200(working).

post-Chernobyl

???

is 12 years behind schedule

VVER-1500 is still project for 40 years. Most modern we have now is VVER-TOI (1300 MW).

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

1.6 GW, cool, but everyone knows all you need is 1.21 GW

[-] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 day ago

Those were JW

[-] Lennny@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago

Jigga what?

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

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this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024

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