French Nuclear Power Crisis -- about half of its reactors are shut down

[progree]

French Nuclear Power Crisis Frustrates Europe’s Push to Quit Russian Energy, non-paywalled New York Times, 6/18/22
(it's via MSN so no paywall)

... But the industry has tumbled into an unprecedented power crisis as EDF confronts troubles ranging from the mysterious emergence of stress corrosion inside nuclear plants to a hotter climate that is making it harder to cool the aging reactors.

The outages at EDF, Europe’s biggest electricity exporter, have sent France’s nuclear power output tumbling to its lowest level in nearly 30 years,

The company warned last winter that it could no longer produce a steady nuclear power supply, as it struggled to catch up with a two-year backlog in required maintenance for dozens of aging reactors that was put off during coronavirus lockdowns.

Inspections unearthed alarming safety issues — especially corrosion and faulty welding seals on crucial systems used to cool a reactor’s radioactive core. That was the situation at the Chinon atomic plant, one of France’s oldest, which produces 6 percent of EDF’s nuclear power. EDF is now scouring all its nuclear facilities for such problems. A dozen reactors will stay disconnected for corrosion inspections or repairs that could take months or years. Another 16 remain offline for reviews and upgrades.

More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/french-nuclear-power-crisis-frustrates-europe-s-push-to-quit-russian-energy/ar-AAYBHki

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Nuclear power provides 70% of France's electric power, the biggest such share of any country in the world

Some are having reduced output due to too-warm river water (used for cooling).

Today, French nuclear production is at its lowest level since 1993, generating less than half the 61.4 gigawatts that the fleet is capable of producing.

Problems with the new nukes that EDF is building.

EDF financial problems

I just saw a headline today that much of Western Europe is having an early heat wave.

[progree]

1. And .. Germany will fire up coal plants again in an effort to save natural gas.

another piece of bad news about power supply and greenhouse gasses, from Latest Breaking News --

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142931895

[jimfields33]

3. Doesn't make sense. I thought they were heavy on wind technology.

There is no reason to use coal.

[whopis01]

6. As of 2021 Germany got about 23% of their power from wind and 30% from coal.

I'm not sure how that may have changed recently though since they started shutting down their nuclear reactors. They had been producing about 13% from nuclear, but had decided to shut them down. At least half were shut down in January. I'm not sure where that shortfall was made up.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

7. I've read that their wind power generation

Has not been consistent enough nor does it have the generation capacity to make up the shortfall from their shut down nuclear plants, now that demand has risen since the low point in the middle of the pandemic.

[progree]

2. World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2021 (WNISR 2021) - a gloomy view of the French nuclear

Last edited Mon Jun 20, 2022, 01:15 PM - Edit history (3)

program

https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2021-773.html

Unfortunately the full report is a big PDF
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/IMG/pdf/wnisr2021-lr.pdf
The France Focus begins on page 82.

The report came out in September 2021, so is 9 months old.

As an example, here is how it starts:

The year 2020 was particularly difficult for the French nuclear sector. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the industry not only by reducing electricity consumption and increasing costs, but the operation of nuclear power plants was significantly impacted by the repeated reshuffling of the outage schedules. Output plunged to the lowest level in 27 years. While no reactor has been shut down explicitly due to the impact of COVID-19, nuclear power has turned out very sensitive to effects, like the need to have very large numbers of workers on-site during refueling and maintenance outages.

The credit-rating agencies did not wait for year-end and in June 2020 downgraded EDF to BBB+ (lower medium grade) notably because of “lower-than-expected availability of nuclear reactors”. However, due to the “likelihood of government support”, EDF is awarded three notches over its “Stand Alone Credit Profile”, which is now lowered BB+ (non-investment grade or “junk”). EDF’s U.K. subsidiary EDF Energy was downgraded to “junk”.159

“Without civil nuclear no military nuclear, without military nuclear no civil nuclear.” -President Emmanuel Macron

At the end of 2020, President Emmanuel Macron visited the Creusot Forge that had been fighting for several years with a scandalous history of irregularities and falsifications in the documentation of thousands of forged pieces spanning over several decades (see Nuclear Power and Criminal Energy (( < -- a link to an interesting-sounding chapter that begins on page 218 --Progree )) )...

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Time for radical solutions

Turn off the TV, refrigeration every other week, hot water twice a week

[2naSalit]

5. Eventually it will come to that,

People can't be bothered to pay attention and a third of those who do just get pissed and complain without finding out the truth.

And then there are those who refuse to alter their habits and practices to accommodate their own survival.

[elleng]

8. 'Deferred maintenance' will get them every time;

autos, refrigerators, railroads, nukes, you name it.