PARIS (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF's nuclear reactor under construction in Flamanville, northern France, could suffer further delays if certain weldings need to be redone, said the country's ASN nuclear regulator on Tuesday.
At the ASN's annual review of nuclear safety, the regulator's new chief Bernard Doroszczuk said eight weldings on pipes between the reactor building and the turbine building were hard to access, and that there was a problem with one of these eight weldings.
"If the ASN were to rule that those least accessible weldings need to be redone, it is possible that EDF's start-up calendar may not be respected," Doroszczuk told reporters.
EDF said last week it would make further tests next month on faulty weldings at Flamanville but added that it still targeted loading nuclear fuel at the plant during the fourth quarter of 2019.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
