Re:Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors
by kakwa_ on Wednesday November 10, 2021 @05:02AM
(#29172982)
4 to 6 years is possible, but more of a best-case scenario.
If you look for example, the nuclear reactor built in France in the 70ies and 80ies took generally between 5 and 9 years to build, with the newer and greater capacity reactors taking significantly more time.
Keep in mind that it was at the pick of Nuclear reactor construction. These are really large projects with tons of suppliers and contractors to coordinate. There is a lot of experience and institutional knowledge needed, but which has been unfortunately partially lost with the significant slowing down of new constructions in the late 80ies/90ies.
Also, this slowing down also had a significant effect on the supply chains, often leaving very few companies key components/sub-systems.
Flamanville 3 is definitely a poorly lead project and a big outlier, but, a country re-starting its nuclear construction, the first units would probably take ~10 years to come online.
If you look for example, the nuclear reactor built in France in the 70ies and 80ies took generally between 5 and 9 years to build, with the newer and greater capacity reactors taking significantly more time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_rea...
Keep in mind that it was at the pick of Nuclear reactor construction. These are really large projects with tons of suppliers and contractors to coordinate. There is a lot of experience and institutional knowledge needed, but which has been unfortunately partially lost with the significant slowing down of new constructions in the late 80ies/90ies.
Also, this slowing down also had a significant effect on the supply chains, often leaving very few companies key components/sub-systems.
Flamanville 3 is definitely a poorly lead project and a big outlier, but, a country re-starting its nuclear construction, the first units would probably take ~10 years to come online.