Energy engineer, Christian Semperes participated in the start-up of the 58 PWR reactors of the 1980s-1990s, in the operation of the installations, and in the simulator training of the nuclear operators.
We are coming out of the previous two five-year terms with the idea that
“
100% renewable
would be technically possible”
and that we could, in fact, stop nuclear power without any impact on the guarantee of electricity service.
This even though the nuclear and hydraulic mix has guaranteed French electricity at one of the lowest prices in Europe for more than 43 years.
This idea is based on a lack of knowledge of the energy field and on the hype of beliefs stemming from the German green ideology on the part of the French State.
In short, eco-ideo-logic has replaced eco-logic and scientific logic.
Explanations.
The last electrical
blackout
in France dates from December 19, 1978, i.e. 353 days after the industrial commissioning of the first nuclear unit at Fessenheim, which opened the era of energy transition, from 1978 to 1999, by replacing fossil fuels. by a nuclear and hydraulic energy mix.
For 43 years, France has lived, without rationing, without blackouts, in what Emmanuel Macron calls "abundance".
Public service agents call this
“meeting the needs of the economy of France and of the French people with a quality and continuity of service favoring a surplus in foreign trade”
.
The majority shareholder state has memory loss.
This is how.
By modeling itself on the German green ideology, the French State has thus built 33 GW of randomly intermittent solar and wind generation means, in return for 121 billion euros in public subsidies.
In 2020, it closed the 2 Fessenheim reactors in perfect working order, safe according to the Nuclear Safety Authority, low carbon (4 g CO2/kWh), controllable, economically profitable and amortized.
But that's not all.
He also drafted law no. 1908 of April 30, 2019 which provides for the closure of 12 other reactors in the same state as Fessenheim but even safer since they will have integrated the safety modifications of the 4th ten-year inspection.
Ironically, he built and started a gas-fired power plant (418 g CO2/kWh) in Landivisiau in Brittany, in the midst of the gas crisis in March 2022 and… planned to reopen the coal-fired power plant (1050 g CO2/kWh ) of Saint Avold in Moselle, at the end of 2022.
Obviously, the production capacity of the hydraulic park will be reduced this winter, while the dams restore their capacity after the snowmelt in the spring of 2023.
Christian Semperes
Today we see the result of this energy policy imposed by Germany via the European Commission.
After stopping its nuclear power, Germany became totally dependent on Russian gas.
And to avoid electricity rationing, Germany is forced to reactivate its coal-fired power stations, which emit a lot of CO2, even after having built 127 GW of solar and wind renewable energies, ie 4 times more than France.
In summary, since the renewable means of production are randomly intermittent, there will be a lack of controllable means of electricity production to satisfy winter consumption, which doubles compared to summer.
The average load factor of the solar park is 15% over the year.
In the period close to the winter solstice, this load factor falls well below 10%.
Even with 12 GW of installed power, the power supplied is epsilonesque with regard to consumption.
So we can't rely on solar.
The load factor of the wind farm, meanwhile, is around 20% over the year.
During periods of winter high pressure and therefore intense cold inducing high electricity consumption, the wind may not blow for more than two weeks (this was the case, at least, in January February 2021 and 2022).
Even with 19 GW of installed power, the load factor is also negligible with regard to consumption.
So we can't rely on wind power either.
With the drought period that we went through in 2022, the water levels of the dams are low.
Obviously, the production capacity of the hydro park will be reduced this winter, while the dams restore their capacity after the snowmelt in spring 2023. From 2021, the 900 MW nuclear park has started its reassessments of safety of the 4th ten-yearly inspections, with large-scale modifications to further improve safety.
These are particularly long shutdowns, of the order of several months.
These modifications are regulatory, the producer cannot avoid them under penalty of non-validation of the restart by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).
The capacity of the nuclear fleet will therefore be reduced.
Ukrainian crisis, and therefore gas, obliges, it is thanks to coal that our political leaders hope to “spend the winter”.
Germany is reactivating coal-fired power stations, France is also reactivating the Saint-Avold power station.
Christian Semperes
Added to this is the doubt about the corrosion of certain parts of the pipes which forced the nuclear operator to shut down 16 reactors over the whole of 2022. On some reactors, destructive checks were carried out (pipe cuts ) which now require repair.
However, as Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of EDF, recently said,
“we are short of people because we don't have enough trained teams.
[…] We were told “your nuclear fleet will decline, prepare to close plants” […].
Obviously we did not hire people to build others
.
The capacity of the nuclear fleet will therefore be further reduced.
And when we blindly follow an ideology in the absence of physical and scientific reasoning, we arrive at the paroxysm of ideo-logical logic.
Ukrainian crisis, and therefore gas, obliges, it is thanks to coal that our political leaders hope
to "spend the winter"
.
Germany is reactivating coal-fired power stations, France too, as I mentioned above, is reactivating the Saint-Avold power station.
Is it necessary to recall here that coal is the most polluting energy?
The State is already asking for electricity savings.
Will they be enough?
This summer, the electricity network and distribution operators RTE and Enedis have drawn up rotating blackout plans for this winter.
This is how, in two five-year terms and four months, we go from guaranteeing service to the public to managing the electricity shortage.
