Two nuclear reactors stopped for checks, in Penly and Flamanville, in Normandy, will restart several weeks late on the schedule hitherto planned, thus depriving France of their electrons for a good part of the winter, we learned. Friday with EDF.
These two sites were both undergoing routine maintenance and affected by control operations linked to corrosion problems on pipes.
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Flamanville reactor 1 (Manche) should restart on February 19, 2023 instead of December 25 as planned until now.
EDF is currently replacing the worn steam generators there, a large-scale operation consisting of the removal of four components weighing more than 400 tonnes and 50 meters in height, explains the group.
To date, the four new generators have been connected to the reactor's primary circuit, and the hydraulic tests validating the quality of the welds are in progress, specifies EDF, adding that "the classic restart operations will be launched in the coming days".
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Reactor 1 at Penly (Seine-Maritime) should for its part restart on March 20, instead of January 23, because this time it is “a new indication of stress corrosion (which) was confirmed on a weld of a portion of piping”.
EDF therefore decided to carry out preventive replacement of this section of piping.
France's nuclear fleet, mainly built in the 1980s, is affected by numerous maintenance operations, the schedule of which has fallen behind, particularly with the Covid-19 confinements.
Many reactors are also affected by corrosion phenomena, detected in recent months.
On Friday, 41 reactors out of a total of 56 were in operation.
