7 Apr (NucNet): French utility EDF has delayed plans to shut down France’s oldest nuclear power station, despite pressure from the French government, neighbouring Germany and environmental activists. The board of state-run EDF voted in January 2017 to approve the closure of the two-unit Fessenheim in Alsace, northern France, next year in principle. But the company said the board decided yesterday, 6 April 2017, not to close the facility until the Flamanville-3 EPR in Normandy begins commercial operation, expected in the fourth quarter of 2018. Fessenheim-1 and Fessenheim-2 both began commercial operation in 1978. Both are 880-MW pressurised water reactor units. EDF said France’s energy transition law caps nuclear energy’s generation capacity at 63.2 GW. As a result, the commissioning of Flamanville-3 is dependent on the shutdown of equivalent capacity.
