Universal Registration Document 2020

Updating the industrial decommissioning scenario for permanently shut-down power plants, particularly UNGG plants, led to a €590 million increase in the provision at 31 December 2015.

The review of decommissioning provisions for permanently shut-down plants in 2016 led to non-significant adjustments, apart from one increase of €125 million for a specific installation (the Irradiated Materials Workshop at Chinon). In 2017 and 2018, this annual review gave rise to non-significant adjustments.

The amended industrial scenario for dismantling of the UNGG reactors in 2015 was presented to the ASN’s commissioners on 29 March 2016. In 2018 the ASN issued its main questions and conclusions about the UNGG strategy file. A consensus was reached regarding “in-air” dismantling for all reactors, the usefulness of an industrial demonstrator, and the timetable for dismantling the first-of-a-kind reactor (Chinon A2), but discussions continued regarding the dismantling timetable for the other 5 reactors. EDF’s proposed schedule allowed for significant experience-based adjustments (after dismantling the first reactor) before beginning almost simultaneous dismantling of the other 5 reactors. On 12 February 2019, EDF presented all the information justifying the Group’s chosen timetable to the ASN’s commissioners. The ASN then issued draft decisions that were submitted to public consultation between July and November 2019, setting the deadline for filing regulatory applications for authorisation of dismantling work, and the dismantling schedule to be included in the applications. In those draft decisions, the ASN acknowledged that the required operations are complex, and that EDF’s proposed risk control strategy (industrial demonstrator, significant experience with a first reactor) is justified. However, it asked for work on the five reactors after the first-of-a-kind reactor to be brought forward slightly and begin no later than 2055.

In view of the ASN’s draft decisions, the nuclear provisions were increased in 2019 by a total €108 million: €77 million for decommissioning provisions for permanently shut-down nuclear power plants and €31 million for provisions for long-term radioactive waste management (long-lived low-level waste, very low-level and low and medium-level waste).

The ASN’s decisions concerning dismantling of UNGG reactors were published on 17 March 2020 and did not contradict the principles of the draft decisions of 2019. Consequently, the nuclear provisions for decommissioning of UNGG plants were not subjected to any particular reestimation in 2020, and they reflect the best estimate of the industrial and technical scenario.

In 2020, the annual review of the cost estimates for decommissioning of permanently shut-down plants led to a €45 million increase in provisions due to critical path delays following suspension of work during France’s first lockdown phase, and a major unforeseen event associated with suspension of segmentation work on vessel internals at Chooz A. The costs for decontamination of civil engineering work were also updated, leading to a €43 million increase in provisions for the entire scope of permanently shut-down plants.

Finally, in accordance with its powers under Article 594-4 of the Environment Code, in June 2020 the DGEC commissioned an external audit of the valuation of dismantling operations for EDF’s permanently shut-down nuclear facilities, conducted by a consortium of specialist firms. This audit began in December 2020 and will continue until July 2021.

At 31 December 2020, the gross amounts estimated under year-end economic conditions (amounts still to be spent) and the present value of those amounts are as follows, presented by type of reactor technology

* Excluding interim storage and processing of steam generators.

Provisions for decommissioning of permanently shut-down nuclear plants also cover dismantling costs for related facilities such as the APEC Fuel Storage Workshop at Creys-Malville and the BCOT Operational Hot Unit at Tricastin.

Compared to decommissioning costs for the PWR technology, the cost at completion (all costs both settled and remaining) for decommissioning of the other reactors is higher, to different extents depending on their specific characteristics:

• costs are around twice as high for Brennilis (completion cost of approximately €0.85 billion for one reactor) due to its compactness, the fact that the core is encased in concrete and thus difficult to access, the absence of a fuel pool, which complicates remote-controlled segmentation, and the presence of zircaloy (a fire hazard), meaning that segmentation work takes longer and must be more closely supervised;
• costs are around twice as high for UNGG reactors (completion cost of approximately €6.4 billion for six reactors), because they require removal of 20 times more material than a PWR due to their size, and contain graphite which is hard to access and requires special handling such that specific remote-controlled equipment must be developed;
• costs are around four times as high for Creys-Malville (completion cost of approximately €1.8 billion for one reactor), due to processing of sodium for which elimination is very sensitive, and the size of the facilities, especially the reactor (with a vessel 20 times bigger than the vessel of the 1300MW PWR).

The following progress has been made on decommissioning work:

• Chooz A: the reactor was shut down in 1991 and nuclear dismantling began in 2007 after the dismantling decree was issued. The final stage of dismantling began in 2016 and involves segmentation, conditioning and removal of reactor vessel internals, followed by dismantling of the vessel itself. These operations are due to be completed in 2024. The dismantling decree requires them to be followed by a period of surveillance of the runoff water from the cave for twenty years, meaning that declassification of the facility would occur in 2047;
• UNNG reactors: these six reactors were shut down between 1973 and 1994 and received their dismantling decrees between 2008 and 2010 (except for Chinon A1 and A2). Fuel removal and circuit draining have been completed for all these reactors, and dismantling operations are in process for the conventional and nuclear buildings in the periphery of the “reactor caissons”. Following the ASN’s decision of 2020, applications for dismantling permits will be submitted for all these reactors in 2022, to obtain new decrees allowing continuation of dismantling operations according to an “in-air” strategy. Opening of the top part of the first UNGG reactor caisson – Chinon A2 – is expected in 2033: the initial extractions of vessel internals and graphite blocks are due to start in 2040 and last 14 years. In parallel, the other UNGG sites are finalising their work to put the sites into a safe storage configuration (by 2035). A safe storage configuration state means that 80% of surfaces have been dismantled and the reactor caissons awaiting dismantling are safe: this will allow sufficient progress on the first reactor in this series to gain experience and ensure safety for the other five operations. Opening of the caissons after the first UNGG decommissioning is scheduled to take place in or after 2055;