It was a validation expected by the executive. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) validated on Wednesday EDF’s control strategy concerning the corrosion problems encountered on certain reactors in its French fleet. EDF plans to check all of its reactors by 2025 by ultrasound to look for any traces of this problem which has led to the shutdown of 12 out of 56 reactors.
The group must control the most sensitive areas of the 1,450 MW reactors and some of the 1,300 MW reactors as a priority. “ASN considers that EDF’s strategy is appropriate given the knowledge acquired on the phenomenon and the associated safety issues”, indicates the Authority in a press release. “However, with regard to reactor 2 of the Belleville nuclear power plant, the ASN considers that the inspection of this reactor scheduled for 2024 is too late”, she specifies.
“Of our 56 reactors, 12 are shut down”
ASN considers that knowledge of the so-called “stress corrosion” phenomenon is “still evolving” and that “the inspection program will have to be adapted if the inspections or analyzes reveal new elements”. This problem of corrosion on certain circuits weighs down the prospects for nuclear electricity production and financial results this year for EDF, whose government has planned 100% renationalisation.
This Wednesday, on LCI, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, raised the issue of electricity, while the shutdown of these many nuclear reactors is raising fears for supply next winter. “Of our 56 reactors, 12 are shut down today for suspicion or proven discovery of corrosion,” she said, recalling that 18 other reactors are also shut down for scheduled maintenance. “Today 30 out of 56 reactors are shut down, but of these 30 reactors, there are 18 which are obviously intended to restart, according to a plan which has moreover been communicated and which is public, in the coming weeks”, she recalled.