3 ms·
There is some confusion with different issues, you are right. There are several problems that create a perfect storm: 1. As you said, the water issue is just t
by marsokod 4y ago
There is some confusion with different issues, you are right. There are several problems that create a perfect storm:
1. As you said, the water issue is just temporary. This is a non-issue for this winter.
2. The next generation NPP, the EPR, is late and is currently only planned for 2023
3. The current NPPs have been authorised to be used up to 50 years, under the condition of doing fairly important upgrades. This is what is ongoing. And because the decision to push these to 50 years was late, the upgrade schedule is quite tight.
4. This upgrade, and other normal maintenance have been impacted by COVID
5. As someone else said, corrosion was discovered during the maintenance of an NPP. Since the cause of the corrosion could not be explained, the operator decided to shut down all the NPPs with the same design. This is being currently analysed and it looks like the nuclear authority is happy with the proposal. The current work is to develop a reliable system to detect and monitor this corrosion, not a change in the design
6. The main operator is in the process of being fully nationalised and is suffering financially as it was basically asked to bail out its competitors this year due to the energy crisis.
7. The backup to NPPs in France is currently gas. And you may be aware of a small constraint on gas due to some issues with a country located further East. If Russia stops the delivery completely, gas supply could be an issue and therefore we need to plan to reopen coal plants that were closed because they were no longer useful.