“Our objective is to extend these nuclear power plants as much as possible while respecting all the safety instructions”, defended Friday, February 3 on franceinfo Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Energy Transition while the Elysée announces studies to extend the life of nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Policy Council (CPN) convened by Emmanuel Macron validated the launch of these studies. “It is done in stages of ten years. We are going to work on the stage which will allow us to go first from 50 to 60 years, then beyond 60 years, which implies special work on the parts which are not not replaceable in a power station”explains Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
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Initially, the lifetime of the power plants is set at 40 years. “You have countries that are planning to make them last up to 80 years like the United States”, continues the minister. This is not the case for France at the moment. “We proceed in order, we say that at each 10-year stage, we will do a floor-to-ceiling analysis of all the components to check if they can be safely extended”she explains.
“When you extend the life of a power plant by another ten years, you replace all the components [de la centrale] which are worn so that it is almost new but there are components that cannot be replaced and that is the issue, recognizes the Minister, it’s how far these components can go.”
11 plants still shut down
There are already recurring cracking problems on nuclear reactors in France and the Minister for Energy Transition, specifies that“today there are 11 that are stopped while in August there were 32, so there was a big connection and repair effort”she rejoices.
To be able to survive the winter in a context of high consumption and high energy prices, “The challenge is to carry out maintenance as efficiently as possible, as quickly as possible too”says Agnès Pannier-Runacher.