COVER STORY | FRANCE’S 900 MW FLEET
Can France rely on its nuclear fleet for a low-carbon 2050?
EDF has not shown its 900 MW units can be operated that far ahead, says ASN’s annual assessment of nuclear safety in France. Decisions have to be taken soon if nuclear is to play a big part in 2050 – and a ‘Marshall Plan’ is needed to rebuild the industry’s capability
FRANCE MAY HAVE TO GO back to the drawing board with regard to options for decarbonising its economy, because assumptions it has made on the lifetime of the 900 MW reactors in its nuclear fleet may be unwarranted. That was the warning in French nuclear safety authority
ASN’s annual report on safety in the country’s nuclear industries. The annual “ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and
radiation protection in France in 2021”, published earlier this year, warned of “new energy policy prospects which must address safety concerns at once”. And it reminded operators that “quality and rigour in the design, manufacture and oversight of nuclear facilities, which were not up to the required level in the latest major nuclear projects conducted in France, constitute the first level of Defence in Depth in terms of safety.” ASN noted that five of the six scenarios presented in
a report by French system operator Réseau de Transport d’Electricité (RTE) report on “Energies of the future”, which aims to achieve a decarbonised economy by 2050, are based on continued operation of the existing nuclear fleet. But with regard to the 900 MW fleet, ASN says, it cannot say that those plants can be operated beyond 50 years, based on information it received during the generic examination
of the fourth periodic safety review of that reactor series. It added, “Due to the specific features of some reactors, it might not be possible, with the current methods, to demonstrate their ability to operate up to 60 years”. EDF has 32 operating 900 MWe reactors commissioned between 1978 and 1987 and they are reaching their fourth periodic safety review. This safety review has “particular
challenges”, ASN says. In particular: ● Some items of equipment are reaching their design-basis lifetime. The studies concerning the conformity of the installations and the management of equipment ageing therefore need to be reviewed to take account of the degradation mechanisms observed and the maintenance and replacement strategies implemented by EDF.
● The safety reassessment of these reactors and the resulting improvements must be carried out in the light of the safety objectives of new-generation reactors, such as the EPR, which meet significantly higher safety requirements.
● ASN pointed to these new requirements that were added following Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi accident (see box) and said that they would have to be installed for the fourth periodic safety reviews of the 900 MWe reactors.
Too optimistic on new-build? The safety authority also noted that one RTE scenario had almost 50% nuclear in its electricity mix in 2050. It said, consultation with industry revealed that the rate of construction of new nuclear reactors in order to achieve such a level would be hard to sustain. RTE had seen the potential limits to new-build, and that meant it had also based this scenario on the operation of some reactors beyond 60 years and the continued operation of the others until 60 years. ASN highlighted this presented electricity supply as
Above: Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant is home to four of the French 900 MW reactors Photo credit: page frederique/
Shutterstock.com
16 | November 2022 |
www.neimagazine.com
well as nuclear safety risks. It said, “This scenario, which is based on fundamental hypotheses of an operating lifetime which cannot at present be confirmed with regard to safety, also entails the risk of leading the electricity system into a dead-end, if the number of reactors able to operate until or indeed beyond 60 years proves to be insufficient, and if this were only known belatedly.” It warned of a potential ‘cliff-edge’ in electricity production capacity if the fleet of reactors started up in the 1980s were shut down within a short window.
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