Gathered in Flamanville: the EPR Owner-Operators Group Welcomes Sizewell
The 9th summit of the EPR Owners Operators Group (EPROOG), gathering EPR reactor owner-operators, took place in Flamanville on the 26th and 27th of March, 2024. On this occasion, the EPROOG strategic committee welcomed a new member: Sizewell C.
As the loading of fuel into the Flamanville EPR is expected in the coming weeks, the EPR Owner-Operators Group (EPROOG) met on the 26th and 27th of March, 2024. Organizing a summit every year since its inception in 2015, EPROOG allows its members to exchange through two working groups, one dedicated to project realisation and the other to operation. “The first focuses on the conduct of realization projects covering a period from the final investment decision – or a few months before – until commercial commissioning,” explains François Verdiel, Deputy Director of International Nuclear Development at EDF and secretary of the EPROOG strategic committee, to the SFEN. “Its work is supervised by a dedicated committee where project directors sit. The second, this time supervised by a committee bringing together the unit directors of the member companies, concerns operation and therefore begins as soon as the operator arrives on the site.” During this ninth summit, members also voted in favor of a new member’s arrival: Sizewell C.
Sizewell C Joins EPROOG
As of March 27, 2024, EPROOG has five members: TNPJVC (EPR Taishan 1&2), TVO (Olkiluoto 3), EDF (Flamanville 3), and the two British ones, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, which will be operated by EDF Energy. “It is possible for an EPR technology reactor owner-operator, or a future owner-operator, to become a member of EPROOG before the final investment decision (FID), as long as their confidence in it is sufficient to engage in this collaboration,” states François Verdiel. Indeed, significant advancements in the Sizewell C project have been observed over the last 12 months, whether in financing – the British government announced in January 2024 to inject an additional £1.3 billion – or in site preparation – the works officially started in January 2024, and the earthworks are due to take place in April 2024.
“In his application letter to the EPROOG secretariat, the SZC manager specified that his teams were already in close collaboration with our colleagues from Hinkley Point C,” explains François Verdiel, “but they would greatly benefit from closer ties with other members of the EPR community while leveraging the proximity of operational experience to support the technical and operational strands in the process of maturation.”■