EDF / 2018 Reference document
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RISK FACTORS AND CONTROL FRAMEWORK Legal proceedings and arbitration
Flamanville 3 - Petition from Greenpeace and the "Sortir du Nucléaire" Network
In three urgent applications filed with the Council of State on 23 December 2016 along with an ultra vires application (recours en excès de pouvoir), the "Observatoire du Nucléaire"association asked the court to suspend the effects of the ASN’s consent to the restarting of the three reactors referred to above. As per ordinance dated 18 January 2017, the Council of State dismissed these urgent applications. After an investigation at the bar, the Council of State rejected the non-profits' requests by the decision of 3 October 2018. Flaws affecting nuclear power stations Following the discovery of a flaw affecting a steam generator in Fessenheim reactor 2 manufactured at the factories in Le Creusot (AREVA NP), Greenpeace and six other associations lodged a complaint against EDF and AREVA NP with the Public Prosecutor’s Department in Paris on 14 October 2016 for four offences, including use of falsified documents, reckless endangerment and late reporting of an incident. In parallel, on 4 May 2016 the "Observatoire du Nucléaire" association filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Department in Chalon-sur-Saône for forgery, use of falsified documents and endangerment against AREVA following the audit conducted on the activities of the factory in Le Creusot which revealed, in particular “irregularities in the manufacturing control process for approximately 400 parts produced since 1965, around fifty of which appear to be in service in nuclear power stations in France. ” ASN also declared that on 25 October 2016, it had reported the irregularities discovered at the factory in Le Creusot to the Public Prosecutor’s Department in Chalon-sur-Saône under Article 40 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure (Code de procédure pénale). Flamanville 3 – action against the modified decree giving construction approval Three appeals have been filed against the amended construction authorisation decree for Flamanville 3. The first two were filed on 23 May 2017, before the Council of State, and were initiated by several non-profit organisations (one by CRILAN and the other by "Notre Affaire à tous") directly against the decree of 23 March 2017 amending the construction authorisation decree for Flamanville 3 and changing the commissioning time limit. In a decision dated 28 March 2018, the Council of State rejected the two applications and ordered each of the associations to pay €2,000 to EDF. The third appeal was filed on 21 August 2017, also before the Council of State, by several non-profit organisations including Greenpeace, CRILAN and "Notre Affaire à tous" against the implicit refusal of the Prime Minister to revoke the amended construction authorisation decree for Flamanville 3. The investigation is still ongoing. Flamanville 3 – action against the opinion of the Nuclear Safety Authority dated 10 October 2017 On 30 November 2017, several associations, including the “Sortir du nucléaire” network and Greenpeace France, introduced proceedings before the Council of State to request the cancellation of the opinion by the Nuclear Safety Authority dated 10 October 2017 relative to the anomaly in the steel in the bottom and lid of the Flamanville 3 reactor vessel. The Nuclear Safety Authority considered that this anomaly was not likely to compromise the commissioning of the reactor vessel providing specific checks were carried out during the operation of the facility. On 27 November 2018, these same non-profits lodged a new appeal with the Council of State against the ASN's decision of 9 October 2018 on the Flamanville 3 vessel (see section 1.4.1.2.1 "Flamanville 3 EPR project"), a decision that follows on from the above-mentioned opinion of 10 October 2017.
Greenpeace and the "Sortir du Nucléaire" Network jointly filed a complaint with the Cherbourg Public Prosecutor's Office on 18 July 2018 against EDF (operator), Framatome (manufacturer) and "X" for various violations of the Environmental Code and the regulations relating to basic nuclear facilities due to welding problems observed on the Flamanville site. Fessenheim On 14 March 2017, the Association Trinationale de Protection Nucléaire (ATPN), began proceedings before the Council of State to request the cancellation, firstly, of decision no. 2016-DC-0551 by the Nuclear Safety Authority dated 29 March 2016, setting the instructions relative to the procedures for the sampling and consumption of water, the discharge of effluents and monitoring the environment at the Fessenheim power plant and, secondly, of decision no. 2016-DC-0550 by the Nuclear Safety Authority setting the limit values for discharges to the environment of effluents from the same facility. In its ruling of 14 June 2018, the Council of State partially annulled the above-mentioned decision setting the limit values for effluent discharges on the grounds that the derogations granted had not been justified. However, the Council of State stated that "in view of the economic and energy value of the operation of Fessenheim and the fact that the temporary maintenance in force of the limit values annulled by this decision, for the sole reason of a lack of motivation, does not entail any particular risk for the interests referred to in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code (...)" EDF is authorised to discharge the effluents in question into the environment in compliance with the cancelled limit values until the ASN takes a new decision setting new values by 1 October 2018 at the latest. The decision in question was adopted by the ASN on 17 July 2018 and approved two months later. For the rest, the Council of State rejected all the other pleas in law and the application for annulment of the above-mentioned decision relating to the sampling methods. A second appeal was lodged on 15 May 2018 by the ATPN, this time against the decision of the President of the Nuclear Safety Authority dated 25 July 2016 by which he authorised EDF to significantly modify the elements that led to the authorisation to create the site. It is now up to the Council of State to decide on this request, which is currently under investigation. Finally, by an order dated 14 June 2018, the Council of State rejected the application for interim measures filed by the ATPN to request the suspension of the ASN's decision of 12 March 2018 lifting the suspension of the Fessenheim HS test certificate granted to Areva NP. It is now up to the Council of State to decide on the merits of this request, which is currently under investigation. Regulated electricity sales tariffs – appeal against the decision of 27 July 2018 On 28 September 2018, ENGIE lodged an appeal with the Council of State against the decisions of 27 July 2018 on regulated electricity sales tariffs applicable to residential and non-residential consumers in metropolitan France. In September, the National Association of Retail Energy Operators (the "ANODE") also filed a summary petition against these decisions and against the decision of 27 July 2018 on the Yellow and Green regulated electricity sales tariffs applicable to consumers in metropolitan France, which it supplemented with an explanatory memorandum on 27 December 2018. ENGIE and ANODE have requested that the Council of State annul these decisions on the grounds, in particular, that, in their opinion, the level and method of tariff construction violates the principle of contestability.
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I Reference Document 2018
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