operation date, or that such authorisations will not be obtained under conditions involving significant expenditure or investment by the Group.
For nuclear reactors where EDF is not in charge of operation but has financial interests (United States, Belgium, China), the Group is financially exposed to the same risks. The Group may need to contribute up to the amount of its share to costly repairs or modifications to be carried out on these units or to events that may have an impact on their operating lifespan, production or availability. As in France and the United Kingdom, the nuclear safety authorities in these countries may take decisions that require additional works or controls, in particular as regards exploiting feedback from international experience and anticipating potentially precursory events.
Furthermore, despite the quality of operations and the changes made by the Group to its nuclear facilities, it cannot be ruled out that some of these facilities will be subject to special operating conditions to reinforce the operating safety margins at the initiative of the nuclear operator responsible for nuclear safety or at the request of the Nuclear Safety Agency.
Finally, a potential serious nuclear accident not involving the Group but with widespread consequences worldwide could lead the Safety Authorities to require new reactor upgrades applicable to the Group’s reactors, and to those in which the Group has a stake.
The Group cannot guarantee that it will receive the expected operating lifespan extension from the competent authorities. Furthermore, such extensions could also be obtained under certain conditions, the financial impact of which, in particular in terms of investments, could affect the Group’s strategy with respect to extending the operating life of its reactors or the Group’s ability to pursue its global investment strategy. These events could have a significant negative impact on the Group’s financial position.
5B – Control of radioactive waste treatment and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and ability to meet related commitments.
The provisions set aside by the Group for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and for the treatment and ultimate disposal of radioactive waste, including long-lived waste from spent fuel treatment and decommissioning, may prove to be insufficient. In particular, decommissioning existing nuclear facilities may present currently unforeseen difficulties or be much costlier than anticipated.
The amount of dedicated assets in France allocated by the Group to cover the costs of its long-term nuclear business commitments (radioactive waste and decommissioning) might need to be revised upwards or require additional expenditures.
Criticality in view of the control actions undertaken: Strong.
The decommissioning operations underway in France (see section 1.4.1.1.6 “Decommissioning of nuclear power plants”) concern plants that were built and operated before the current nuclear fleet, including the Superphenix plant (“first generation” plants). These operations cover four different reactor technologies: heavy water reactor (Brennilis), sodium-cooled fast reactor (Superphenix at Creys-Malville), graphite-moderated and gas-cooled reactor (UNGG reactors at Chinon, Saint Laurent and Bugey) and the “PWR” at Chooz. Each of them is a first for EDF, and apart from the PWR, they concern reactor technologies for which there is little or no international experience. They therefore require development of new methods and technologies that are riskier than technologies for which feedback already exists. The decommissioning of the PWR at Chooz A does benefit from some feedback (essentially American and of a limited nature) but it has the innovative specific feature of being located in a cave, which also makes it an unusual operation for which experience is not immediately transferable and which includes specific risks.
The Chooz A PWR decommissioning operations are continuing with the cutting and removal of the vessel internals according to schedule, after the reactor pool was filled with water in 2018 and the vessel was opened in March 2017.
The feedback from the PWR at Chooz will enable consolidation, as far as possible, of the studies and estimates on the future costs of decommissioning the nuclear fleet currently in operation (“second generation” power plants). The first reactor of the Fessenheim power plant was definitively shut down on 22 February. The shutdown of the second reactor is scheduled for 30 June 2020, making these two reactors the first of the nuclear fleet currently in operation to benefit from this feedback for their decommissioning. Nevertheless, neither EDF, nor any other operator, has yet undertaken a decommissioning programme on a scale comparable to that of the Group’s current PWR fleet and the estimates therefore involve risks that are associated in particular with this scale effect.
The timing and cost of the work is also dependent on administrative authorisations and the availability, at the necessary time, of radioactive waste storage centres or other facilities necessary for the conditioning, treatment or storage of waste containers.
In addition to these technical and industrial sensitivity factors, the amount of provisions currently set aside may change in the coming years. Indeed, the assessment of the need for these provisions is sensitive to the assumptions used for costs, planning, inflation rates and long-term discount rates, and to any change in the regulations, in particular those relating to the scope of expenses to be covered. The amount of these provisions, in accordance with the French Environmental Code, is subject to control by the administrative authority, which verifies in particular the adequacy of the provisioned expenses and imposes a cap on the discount rate for the provisions.
Given these sensitivity factors, changes in certain parameters may require significant adjustments of the provisions booked and, therefore, the Group cannot guarantee that the provisions booked will equal the costs actually incurred at the relevant time, which would have an adverse impact on the Group’s financial position (see note 32 of the appendix to the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2019). The Group regularly conducts an update of the key assumptions underlying the provisions (see note 32 of the appendix to the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2019).
With regard to the provision for decommissioning of nuclear power generation facilities in France, the amount of expenses under economic conditions at the end of 2019 is estimated at €27,562 million, the corresponding provision is €16,937 million. As for the last core provision, costs based on year-end economic conditions are estimated at €4,331 million and provision at present value amounts are valued €2,624 million, as the discounting effect is very significant due to distant waste storage maturities. Note 32 “Analyses of sensitivity to macro-economic assumptions” of the appendix to the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended on 31 December 2019 indicates the analyses of sensitivity of provisions and Group’s results to a discount rate change, for the different types of provisions.
