French nuclear plant consumes more power than it generates in first two months

Flamanville 3 is a new reactor, which was first connected to the grid late December 2024. Its standby consumption seems to be roughly the same as the other reactors.

I'm not an expert but to me it looks like they are still in some kind of testing/verification/certification phase? According to its operator's website[0] they ran into some minor technical issues during ramp-up, which of course have to be fixed as well.

The alternative is going into full production before testing has been finished, but that's how we got Chernobyl. I'd rather have it operate at an energy loss for a few months so they can carefully work out all the teething problems than have it irradiate a decent bunch of France and England.

[0]: https://www.edf.fr/la-centrale-nucleaire-de-flamanville-3-ep...

This is modern nuclear power... I'm sure they'll get the kinks worked out and it will operate as expected but this thing broke ground over 15 years ago with a expected first power date in 2012 and a projected cost of 3 billion euro.. It ended costing nearly 20 billion euros and for all intents, didn't start producing power until 2025. In any case, they were projecting the actual startup to take months so I'm not surprised it's not producing full capacity yet;

Following this initial coupling, in accordance with the startup operations, the phases of testing and of connection and disconnection to the grid will continue for several months, under the supervision of the ASN, until the reactor reaches 100% power.

Flamanville Nuclear Power Station in France's new EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) reactor (#3) has faced significant delays and cost overruns due to various technical issues, including problems with the reactor vessel itself.

- it's hardly a "new" or relatively modern design considering this particular design goes back to the mid 1980's, being designed by SIEMENS in France, and the first one (Finland) went online twenty years ago in 2005.

Five EPRs have either been built or are being built; another one is planned. Four of the five EPRs built have suffered enormous cost overruns and/or significant construction delays.

The Taishan 1 reactor in China, the first to be completed, was taken offline in July 2021 because of damaged fuel rods.

Source: Institute for Energy Econoics and Financial Analysis

https://ieefa.org/resources/european-pressurized-reactors-ep...

What is the overall lifetime balance, regarding construction, uranium mining, long term storage of used fuel rods, and finally deconstruction of the plant vs the energy it produces over lifetime? Haven’t found a full calculation so far

I know most reactors are built on like 20 year old designs, mostly for safety reasons. Is this reactor more modern in that respect? Finally using some new ideas?

Is this expected or an issue?

"On 21 Dec 2024, the reactor was connected to the national grid, initially producing 100 MW of power.[43]" They just turned it on.