“It’s really urgent” of “get out of this dependence on the nuclear fleet which weakens us more and more”, alerted Thursday August 25 on franceinfo Yves Marignac, consultant on nuclear power and energy transition within the négaWatt group. EDF has announced the extension of the shutdown of four reactors, affected by corrosion problems, for several weeks this fall.
franceinfo: What are the corrosion problems that EDF is talking about?
Yves Marignac: These are problems affecting the interior of safety-critical circuits, in particular those used to cool a reactor in the event of an emergency. These are therefore items of equipment whose failure cannot be envisaged. And EDF’s ability to restart the reactors presupposes two things: the first is to repair, that is to say to have the parts and operators to redo the welds. The second is to be able to guarantee, as requested by the Nuclear Safety Authority, that monitoring can be carried out in order to detect any possible reappearance of this corrosion. For the moment, EDF does not have a qualified process to do so.
32 French reactors out of 56 are now shut down. Does this have an impact on electricity production?
Yes, it has a major impact. EDF indicates that the production of electricity over the year will probably be 280 terawatt-hours, while the expected production of a French nuclear fleet operating normally is 430 terawatt-hours. It will therefore practically fall to 50%, which is extremely low and historically unprecedented. This poses enormous problems for the electricity supply in the short term, and above all great concerns for the supply this winter.
Are we at risk of power cuts this winter?
Everything will depend on possible cold spells, since the French electricity system is very sensitive to heating needs. The slightest less degree in winter immediately affects production needs. So there will probably be no risk of a blackout in the sense of a total blackout, but organized blackout situations, to deal with a situation of temporary electricity shortage, are quite possible.
What conclusions should be drawn from this situation, in your opinion?
The first conclusion is the growing dependence of our electrical security on a nuclear fleet which is experiencing a historically unprecedented level of failure, but which over the years has seen its performance deteriorate. It is therefore necessary to diversify our electrical system, to work above all to control our electricity consumption, to improve the efficiency of our equipment and especially of our building stock. It is also necessary to develop renewable energies, since it is not a question of depending more on fossil fuels. All these subjects have been known for a long time, and successive governments have fallen behind. It is really urgent to accelerate the implementation of this transition and get out of this dependence on the nuclear fleet, which weakens us more and more.