Bridging the time for new buildings
France wants to increase the output of its nuclear power plants
04/12/2023, 5:35 p.m
France is fully committed to nuclear power and almost went swimming with it last summer. Nevertheless, more nuclear power plants are to be built. Paris wants to bridge the time until its completion by increasing the output of the existing power plants.
While Germany is heading towards the shutdown of the last nuclear power plants, the government in France wants to increase nuclear power production with the existing 56 power plants. The government has commissioned the electricity company EDF and the nuclear safety authority ASN to examine whether the performance of the nuclear power plants built between 1979 and 2002 can be increased, the newspaper “Le Figaro” reported. Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher justified the step with efforts to increase the generation of emission-free energy.
The government promises increased performance through technical adjustments to the operation of the power plants and shorter shutdowns for maintenance. In the coming years, the government wants nuclear power production to increase again to 350 to 380 terawatt hours per year after production fell to 279 terawatt hours in 2022, the lowest value in 30 years. Increasing the efficiency would be a further measure in addition to the planned upgrading of the reactor for a period of more than 40 years. Both steps are intended to stabilize nuclear power production until the completion of six new power plants, which is not expected until well into the next decade.
In the past year, corrosion damage had led to the standstill of a number of nuclear power plants in France, some of which were getting on in years, and forced the country in the middle of the energy crisis to import more electricity, including from Germany. New corrosion damage was recently discovered, which is why 320 welds on pipelines are now being inspected. So far, it has not been assumed that the recent problems will massively restrict the operation of the nuclear power plants.