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Risk of energy shortage: was it too late to keep the Fessenheim plant in operation?

2022-08-31T13:16:27.376Z


The government, which now intends to revive the nuclear industry, justifies in particular the closure of the Fessenheim power plant by the fa


The news sometimes offers this kind of shock.

On Monday, the Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin) power plant announced that all the fuel had now been evacuated, two years after its complete shutdown.

At the same time, this decision to close the oldest power station in France was denounced by many political leaders but also by civil society actors, while the risk of gas and electricity cuts this winter is increasing. more pressing.

The government, which now plans to build 14 nuclear reactors (including 8 as an option), justifies this closure of Fessenheim in particular by the fact that it had been promised and politically committed by its socialist predecessor.

In essence, it was too late to turn back, as indicated on Tuesday morning on France Inter the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

But is it so sure?

Agnès Pannier-Runacher: "We have a problem of electricity production, which is independent of the Ukrainian crisis" #le7930inter pic.twitter.com/2VZPywMO3K

– France Inter (@franceinter) August 30, 2022

The Fessenheim plant entered into operation on January 1, 1978. Putting an end to it was originally a campaign promise by François Hollande.

This commitment was taken up, a few weeks before his election in 2017, by Emmanuel Macron.

“Yes, it will be closed.

(…) On this, we must not back down, ”affirmed the latter on France 2 on April 6, 2017. In November 2018, now president, the ex-candidate En Marche!

announced "the final shutdown of the two Fessenheim reactors in the summer of 2020".

“Until the end of the first quarter of 2018, there were no difficulties in changing your mind”

These two reactors in question had been authorized to operate until September 2020 and August 2022, respectively.

To extend its commissioning, EDF would have had to carry out its own review, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to carry out its own analyzes on site and the operator to comply with its recommendations.

For MP Raphaël Schellenberger (Les Républicains), chairman of the fact-finding mission "on monitoring the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant", "all our hearings showed that, until the end of the first quarter of 2018, there was no difficulty in changing one's mind”.

“The government should have asked EDF what it was able to do to keep Fessenheim in operation, and the group should have added the plant to its work schedule.

Since there was also the large fairing

(in order to extend the life of current power plants from 40 to 60 years)

to anticipate, it would rather have been necessary to decide on a continuation of the exploitation 4 or 5 years in advance”, estimates for its part Valérie Faudon, director general of the French company of nuclear energy.

“When you look at everything ASN has been able to impose for other reactors, nothing would have been impossible at Fessenheim.

But as the closure was recorded upstream, no study had been launched concerning the feasibility of continued operation.

Suddenly, it might have taken a few exemptions, ”adds nuclear safety engineer Tristan Kamin.

ASN tells us for its part that "the Fessenheim reactors did not continue the post-Fukushima improvement program

(in 2011)

identical to the fleet and did not initiate the same program of fourth ten-year reviews than the rest of the fleet of 900 MW reactors, which determines their continued operation beyond 40 years".

Inevitable closure in 2023… unless the law is changed?

Even if the continued operation of the Fessenheim plant would have received technical and practical authorizations, another pitfall, legislative this time, would have stood in its way.

The law of August 17, 2015 on energy transition for green growth

provides for a cap on nuclear power installed in France at 63.2 GW in 2023. However, it is still on this date that the Flamanville EPR (Manche) is supposed to enter service, after many delays.

Assuming that the government respects the law and requires EDF to respect it, that it does not change the law, and that the Flamanville EPR starts up well in 2023, the closure of Fessenheim (or two reactors of equivalent power ) would have been necessary on that date”, summarizes Tristan Kamin, stressing that this “makes big assumptions”.

A law can indeed undo what previous legislation has “done”.

The 50% cap on the share of nuclear power in electricity production, initially planned for 2025 in this same law, has already been postponed to 2035.

Read also“Saving energy everywhere, right away”: how the government is preparing for the worst-case scenario

Still, this subject of the Fessenheim shutdown in the current context of energy tensions is “a false debate, in the sense that its maintenance would not have significantly changed the situation today”, judges the pro-nuclear engineer.

In 2019, the plant represented “only” around 2.5% of total electricity production in France.

Be that as it may, since the decree "repealing the authorization to operate the Fessenheim nuclear power plant held by EDF" was published on February 19, 2020, it would be even more complicated - politically and technically - to go back. .

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2022-08-31

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