I have blogged about problems that the French utility EDF is having with some of their nuclear reactors. Their subsidiary Areva which builds nuclear reactors was caught making substandard components for nuclear power plants with steel weakened by too much carbon in the alloy. Areva had faked quality control documents at the La Creusot foundry. Following the disclosure of this problem, twenty of the French fleet of fifty-eight nuclear power reactors were shut down for inspection as of October 2016. By mid-January 2017, nine of the twenty reactors were cleared to be restarted by the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), the French nuclear regulatory agency. Having these reactors shut is costing EDF over a million dollars a day.
The head of EDFs nuclear power station division has just announced that they have some new technical procedures that should solve problems at two of the plants with substandard components not clear to restart as well as problems at two other plant that were shut down for other reasons. If ASN approves the "fixes" proposed by EDF for the four plants, EDF hopes to restart the plants between July and November of this year.
The Gravelines 5 reactor was shut down in October so its suspect components could be inspected. During the inspection, it was found that a new steam generator manufactured by Areva had "serious anomalies" so the intended replacement was cancelled. EDF is proposing that a process called "sleeving" be used to insert smaller pipes inside larger pipes that were weakened by too much carbon in the steel in order to extend the life of the current steam generator. If the sleeving is approved by ASN, then EDF believes that the repairs can be accomplished by June 30th of this year. The La Creusot foundry is closed until this summer. If it does not come back online so new steam generators can be built there, EDF will have to go to other manufacturers to purchase a new steam generator for the Gravelines 5 reactor.
The Fessenheim 2 reactor was shut down last June because of too much carbon in the steel. EDF does not plan any repairs at the Fessenheim 2 reactor. They are trying to convince ASN that the Fessenheim 2 reactor can be safely operated without repairs. EDF sent a report to ASN last year but ASN required more information before authorizing a restart. EDF hopes to send the additional information out in April and have the reactor back online by July 31st.
The Bugey 5 reactor has been shut down since August 2015 due to a small leak in the steel shell of the reactor building. EDF says that it has chosen to reline the entire bottom of the steel shell in the hopes that that will solve the problem of the leak they cannot locate. They hope to have approval of ASN for the resealing in the near future.
At the Paluel 2 reactor, a steam generator was dropped on the floor last year. EDF says that this accident did not damage the steel shell of the building and there should not be any problems with restarting the reactor once they have removed the old steam generators and replace them with new generators which have already been delivered. If the ASN signs off on the needed changes, EDF hopes to be able to restart the reactor on November 30.
