“The company building the UK’s first new nuclear power station for decades is facing questions over the health of its fleet of French nuclear plants after an investigation which has left the country with the lowest level of nuclear power for 10 years and the prospect of power cuts during a cold snap.
Thirteen of Électricité de France’s (EDF) 58 atomic plants are offline, some due to planned maintenance, but most for safety checks ordered by the regulator over anomalies discovered in reactor parts.
The outages have prompted warnings of potential planned power cuts and pushed up wholesale power prices, boosting coal and gas operators but squeezing small energy suppliers. Carbon emissions will possibly rise too as France, which last year forged a historic climate change deal in Paris, has to import more fossil fuel power.
The problems stem from a fault identified last year by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in the as-yet-unfinished reactor at north-western France’s Flamanville plant – the same design approved for Hinkley Point C in the UK.
Pierre-Franck Chevet, president of the ASN, told Le Figaro the situation was “very worrying” and the discovery had led to “unprecedented” checks at all the country’s nuclear plants, which provide 75% of France’s electricity and normally help it export power to other countries. The issue is higher than expected carbon concentrations in steel reactor components, which could make them vulnerable to cracking.”
East Devon Watch 