The loading of fuel into the reactor vessel of the Flamanville-3 EPR nuclear power plant in northern France has been completed, Alain Morvan, director of the Flamanville-3 project, said in a post on LinkedIn.
Morvan said 241 fuel assemblies were loaded. Each was about five metres high and weighed nearly 800 kg.
The handling of the fuel assemblies was carried out by teams from state nuclear operator EDF. Workers from nuclear company Framatome were responsible for monitoring the reactor core and a team from France-based industrial company Reel oversaw the functioning of equipment used for these operations.
EDF announced on 8 May that it started fuel loading, a day after French nuclear regulator ASN gave permission for the fuel loading and startup procedures to begin.