French Nuclear Power Crisis Frustrates Europe’s Push to Quit Russian Energy

Paris — A steam eruption that has recently risen above two reactors at the CNPE De Chinon in the heart of France’s lush Loire Valley. However, the sky above the third reactor was unusually sunny. Its operation was frozen after it was discovered that the cooling system was cracked.

Partial shutdown is not unique. About half of Europe’s largest French nuclear power plants have gone offline due to a storm of unexpected problems swirling around state-sponsored nuclear power plants, France Electric Power, or EDF.

European Union Breaking Russia’s relationship with oil and gas In the wake of Moscow’s war with Ukraine, France has bet on nuclear power plants to survive the oncoming energy crisis. Nuclear power supplies about 70% of France’s electricity and has the largest share of any other country in the world.

However, the industry is unprecedented as EDF faces problems ranging from the mysterious emergence of stress corrosion in nuclear power plants to the hotter climates that make it difficult to cool aging reactors. We are in a power crisis.

France’s electricity prices hit record highs, as the war in Ukraine began, with France’s nuclear power dropping to its lowest level in nearly 30 years due to the power outage of EDF, Europe’s largest electricity exporter. .. Wider inflation.. France faces uncertain prospects that it will have to launch rolling blackouts this winter and import electricity instead of supplying large amounts of electricity to Russia’s oil-centric UK, Italy and other European countries. doing.

EDF, which already has a debt of € 43 billion (about $ 45 billion), has also been exposed to recent transactions involving Russian state-owned enterprises. Rosatom, a nuclear operator, It may bring new financial pain to French companies. The problem grew so rapidly that President Emmanuel Macron’s government hinted that EDF might need to be nationalized.

“We can’t rule it out,” said Energy Conversion Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Tuesday. “It will require a huge investment in EDF.”

The crunch couldn’t have hit a worse time.Oil price Touched a record high After the European Union agreed to cut off Russia’s oil, it intensified Europe’s economic distress and joined the crisis of living costs that France and other countries were trying to tackle. The price of natural gas, which France uses to compensate for fluctuations in nuclear energy, has also skyrocketed.

As Russia’s aggression redefines Europe’s consideration for energy, nuclear power Proponents say This will help fill Europe’s fuel shortages and complement the already ongoing shifts to adapt wind, solar and other renewable energies to meet ambitious climate change goals.

However, resolving the crisis at EDF is not easy.

With 56 reactors, the French reactor is the second largest reactor after the United States. One-quarter of Europe’s electricity comes from nuclear power in about 12 countries, and France produces more than half of it.

However, the French nuclear industry, built primarily in the 1980s, has been plagued by a lack of new investment for decades. Experts say that as people retired or moved, they lost valuable engineering expertise, affecting EDF’s ability to maintain or replace existing power plants.

“The government-approved EDF strategy was to delay the reinvestment and transformation of the system,” said Yves Marignac, a nuclear expert at the Negawatt, a think tank in Paris. “The more EDF delays, the more skills you lose, the more technical problems you accumulate, and the more snowball effects you get.”

Macron recently released a blueprint of € 51.7 billion. Rebuild France’s nuclear program.. By 2035, EDF will build the first of up to 14 giant next-generation pressurized water reactors and a small nuclear power plant that will be the basis for extensive efforts to strengthen France’s energy independence. intend to do something. Achieve climate goals..

However, some new reactors built by EDF have suffered from huge cost overruns and delays. The EDF Pressurized Water Reactor at Hinckley Point in southwest England will not be operational until 2027. Four years behind schedule, it’s too late to support the rapid conversion of Britain from Russia’s oil and gas.Finland’s latest EDF nuclear power plant Opened last monthWas supposed to be completed In 2009..

Recent problems with EDF began to rise shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. The company warned last winter that it couldn’t generate stable nuclear power because it struggled to keep up with the two-year backlog with the necessary maintenance of dozens of dilapidated reactors that were postponed during the coronavirus blockade. did.

The inspection revealed a safety issue to watch out for. In particular, corrosion and weld seal defects in critical systems used to cool the radioactive cores of nuclear reactors. This was the situation at the Shinon Nuclear Power Plant, one of the oldest nuclear power plants in France, producing 6% of EDF’s nuclear power.

EDF is currently scrutinizing all nuclear facilities for such issues. Twelve reactors remain disconnected for corrosion inspection or repair, which can take months or years. Another 16 remains offline for reviews and upgrades.

Due to climate change concerns, others must reduce electricity production. Rivers in southern France, including the Rhone and Gironde, warm up early each year and become too hot in spring and summer to cool the reactor.

Today, France’s nuclear production is at its lowest level since 1993, producing less than half of the 61.4 gigawatts that the fleet can produce. (EDF also uses renewable technology, gas and coal to generate electricity.) Even if some reactors restart in the summer, France’s nuclear power will be 25% lower than usual this winter, which is alarming. The result is.

Thierry Bros, an energy expert and professor at the Paris Institute, said: Of political science.

The government, which owns 84% ​​of EDF, has joined the battle. As market electricity prices approached € 500 per megawatt hour last winter, Macron ordered EDF to raise the price of electricity sold to third-party providers to a maximum price of only € 46 per megawatt hour, for French households. Protect from inflation.

But to replenish the electricity supply while dozens of nuclear power plants are offline, EDF will buy electricity at high prices in the open market at a cost expected to exceed 10 billion euros this year. I was forced to do that. The move infuriated EDF’s combat chief executive Jean-Bernard Levi, and he formally appealed to the government.

In the midst of growing turmoil, the French government introduced a € 2 billion lifeline into EDF in February. But that’s not enough to solve the problem.

The debtor company is also a longtime customer of EDF components and government-sponsored related to Rosatom, the largest purchaser of the powerful French-made Arabelle steam turbines found in both Rosatom and EDF nuclear power plants. I am facing risks in my trading.

Despite the war, France has traded with Russia as usual in nuclear power, which remains exempt from European Union sanctions. In February, Macron upheld an agreement with EDF to acquire € 1.1 billion worth of Alabel Turbine business from General Electric, returning the manufacturing company to French ownership after GE acquired it from Alstom in 2015.

After Finland canceled the Rosatom contract for a new nuclear power plant last month, EDF is seeking a lower rating for the deal, amid concerns that Rosatom’s business may stumble. If Rosatom faces additional cancellations or building delays in other countries, EDF may face slumping turbine orders and new losses.

The best way for the French nuclear industry to recover is to stick to plans to build a fleet of new nuclear power plants, JP Morgan Chase said in a recent analysis.

“If anything, the current crisis creates this project, and the ambition to re-regulate or nationalize EDF’s nuclear fleet is more legal than ever for France and its European partners,” the bank said. Stated.

Adele Cordonier Report that contributed.