Well we couldn’t end the week without one more EPR story, could we? Things continue to go from bad to worse in Flamanville, France, where EDF and Areva are building their ‘state-of-the-art’, third generation reactor.

Yesterday we heard that the cost of the project has risen by a fifth from €3.3bn to €4bn in 2008. Today we hear that there are yet more problems with the reactor’s construction. The French nuclear watchdog ASN has announced this week that they have found defects in the reactor’s steel liner (the metal shell that protects the reactor) due to corrosion. They don’t seem to be having much luck with that liner – earlier this year if was found that a quarter of inspected welds in it were defective

And you know what? The French government are preparing to announce a second EPR for France. Isn’t that great?

(For more details, in French, visit Greenpeace France)