The bad news keeps piling up.
After having revised downwards its nuclear production forecast for 2022, EDF discreetly revealed on November 3 a radioactive leak in the confined enclosure of reactor number one at the Civaux power plant (Vienne).
The unit was shut down for repair of a corrosion defect, and the uranium fuel was not loaded.
The steam leak occurred during an exercise to pressurize the primary circuit on 2 November.
This circuit is at the heart of the operation of a power plant.
“While the pressure reached 190 bars and the temperature 95 ° C, a release of steam occurred in the instrumentation room of the reactor core
, specifies the website of the plant.
No responder was nearby, there was no injury or contamination.
The problem occurred on a part used specifically for hydraulic pressure testing.
"No radiological activity is measured outside the facilities
," says EDF.
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The number one reactor at Civaux is due to restart on January 8.
An internal source points
to "a serious problem which will undoubtedly affect the restart of the reactor"
.
EDF believes it is too early to tell.
RTE expects a strong increase in power of the EDF nuclear fleet, from 28 gigawatts currently to 45 gigawatts in January.
A very steep "remontada" for EDF, which has already been disrupted by technical delays and strikes in recent weeks.
There is little room for maneuver to respect the objective.
Before the announcement of the incident, EDF was counting on an online power of around 44 gigawatts in January.
The Civaux reactor has a power of 1.45 gigawatts.