Commissioning of Superphenix-1 opens new era

Initial criticality of Superphenix was achieved on September 7, 1985, and the plant coupled to the French electricity grid for the first time on January 14, 1986. Full power operation was attained on December 9, 1986. The plant testing program, extending from the end of the construction phase to the end of power ascension tests, was conducted in three phases: 1. testing of individual systems (construction testing); 2. nuclear steam supply system integrated testing before core loading, plus testing of conventional power generation systems (proportional testing); and 3. fuel loading, core physics tests, and power ascension tests (start-up testing)