Being constructed by Areva, the plant will be operated by EDF.
Earlier this month, Areva has informed the French nuclear regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), about the anomalies identified in the steel composition of the reactor vessel of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR).
The EPRs are being installed by EDF at the Flamanville plant.
The anomalies were discovered after chemical and mechanical tests were carried out in late 2014 on a model of the reactor vessel head and bottom.
ASN said that these revealed the presence of a zone in which there was a high carbon concentration, leading to lower than expected mechanical toughness values.
EDF and Areva will undertake additional tests to identify the precise location of the anamolies.
EDF and Areva said: "Teams are working to perform the additional tests as soon as possible, following approval by the French Nuclear Safety Authority on the test conditions, and to provide the safety authority with all the necessary information to demonstrate the safety and quality of the corresponding equipment."
Meanwhile, the two firms said that the manufacturing techniques, which are being implemented on the Flamanville 3 reactor vessel, complied with regulations, reports Reuters.
EDF said in a statement: "On the basis of the information available at this stage, EDF can confirm that work can continue on Flamanville’s EPR site."
Claimed to be safer than the conventional reactors, EPRs are being offered to the UK, US and China.
Areva is scheduled to supply two EPR reactors to Hinkley Point plant in England, and EDF is in talks with the authorities to build the facility.
Greenpeace France’s Yannick Rousselet told the Independent that the latest problems to beset the prototype power station in Normandy are ‘clearly the coup de grâce for the EPR idea’.
"What foreign client would want to buy this reactor when France itself is not capable of completing its construction?", he observed.
Image: Anamolies were found in the vessel bottom and head of the EPR. Photo: courtesy of ASN.
