At Penly 2, the crack is about 6 centimeters. In Cattenom, it exceeds 16 cm. They were found on emergency pipes.
By BL with AFP
© CAROLINE PAUX / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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Fserial issues. According to the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), EDF detected another “not insignificant” defect due to a phenomenon known as thermal fatigue on a weld in emergency piping in two reactors. This complication, one more, could further disrupt the maintenance schedule for French power plants.
Checks “made it possible to detect the presence of thermal fatigue cracks”, on emergency pipes “considered as sensitive to stress corrosion” in reactor 2 of the Penly nuclear power plant (Seine-Maritime) and the reactor 3 from the Cattenom power plant (Moselle), according to an ASN note updated on Thursday.
At Penly 2, the crack is 57mm long, representing less than 10% of the circumference, for a maximum depth of 12mm. “It is not trivial, it is a significant depth”, indicated to Agence France-Presse Julien Collet, deputy director general of the ASN. The other crack was spotted at Cattenom 3, 165 mm long (representing about a quarter of the circumference) for a maximum depth of 4 mm.
These discoveries come two days after the revelation of a crack of size never before seen in the Penly 1 reactor, on an emergency pipe used to flood the reactor with water in the event of a nuclear accident. This crack “extends over 155 mm, or approximately a quarter of the circumference of the pipe, and its maximum depth is 23 mm, for a pipe thickness of 27 mm”, had detailed the ASN.
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EDF will have to check 200 welds
The phenomenon known as “stress corrosion” has been identified since October 2021 on several sites, but generated smaller cracks and on other areas of these pipes.
EDF must submit a revised control strategy to ASN in the coming days. In total, the electrician will have to check 200 welds throughout its fleet, according to ASN. What potentially cause prolonged shutdowns of reactors and raise uncertainties about nuclear production in 2023. The other crack mentioned Thursday by ASN is not however linked to this phenomenon of corrosion under stress, but to that of fatigue thermal, which appears on stainless steels when a part is subjected to variations in temperature.
This phenomenon is “well known and monitored for a long time under historical preventive maintenance programs”, assures EDF. On the other hand, he was not expected in the area of the piping where he was discovered, according to ASN. “This does not change the short-term checks program, but EDF will have to adapt its maintenance program to include checks on thermal fatigue over larger areas”, indicated Julien Collet.
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