Eiffage lands €4bn+ civil engineering works on new nuclear plant in France

An aerial view of the Penly nuclear power plant site in Normandy, France (Image: Remi Mathis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

French contracting giant Eiffage has won a contract worth in excess of €4 billion to carry out the main civil engineering works for the construction of a new nuclear power plant at Penly, Normandy, France.

The tender for the civil engineering works on the first pair of EPR-2 reactors at the site began in 2019. It involves the construction of two units including 69 civil structures.

The preparatory works should begin in mid-2024 once the client, energy company EDF, has secured administrative authorisations.

The civil engineering phase will include the construction of the reactor buildings containment – a 70m-tall dome with a 50m diameter and the turbine hall buildings.

It also includes a six-level operation building with a total floor space of 15,000 sq m in a design and construction framework.

At its peak, construction work will involve almost 4,000 people, Eiffage said.

The construction of the reactors at Penly is part of a wider €52 billion programme to build six reactors in the country, announced by the office of the French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this year.

Penly is already home to a nuclear power plant and two more reactors will also be built at an existing nuclear site at Gravelines in northern France. The French government also chose Bugey in eastern France as the site for a third pair of reactors.