A fault has been detected at the Penly 1 nuclear power station 10342082/KateD – stock.adobe.com
If this new incident raises its share of concerns, the group remains confident for the rest of the operations.
This is called a domino effect. The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) detected in EDF’s latest generation power plants in 2021 had forced the group to shut down part of its facilities to carry out repairs. But as the return to normal loomed on the horizon, another setback for the electrician. EDF has detected a “significant stress corrosion defect” on the safety injection circuit of the Penly 1 reactor. To make matters worse, this fault “was probably generated by these targeted “double repair” operations during the first assembly of the pipes”notes the group in an information note published at the end of February and revealed by the information site Context.
A new insufficiency which prompted the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to ask EDF on Tuesday to “revise its strategy” on the treatment of stress corrosion in certain reactors. Shut down since October 2021, Penly 1 has seen its reactivation date postponed several times. It is now set for May 2. “The analysis is continuing, it will be submitted to the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) for instruction and approval”nevertheless indicates EDF.
If the group remains confident for the rest of the operations, this new episode raises its share of concerns, relating in particular to a new cause of CSC. By extension, this defect noted at Penly 1 could raise the question of the maintenance in production of similar reactors. A new sword of Damocles hangs over EDF’s head as stress corrosion, micro-cracks in parts of piping, has already cost it billions in 2022. It has helped deepen the group’s loss, which stood at 17.9 billion. This new incident thwarts the plans of Luc Rémont, CEO of EDF, one of whose objectives is to increase the rate of use of the group’s facilities.
For its part, ASN states that it has received an update of EDF’s significant safety event declaration relating to the presence of stress corrosion cracks on several of its reactors. This update concerns reactor 3 of the Cattenom nuclear power plant and the reactors of the Civaux, Chooz B and Penly nuclear power plants. “This update notably includes the detection of a crack located near a weld in a line located in the hot leg of the safety injection system (RIS BC) of reactor 1 of the Penly power plant. The crack extends over 155 mm, or about a quarter of the circumference of the pipe, and its maximum depth is 23 mm, for a pipe thickness of 27 mm“, mentions the authority. She adds that this event had no impact on the staff or the environment. However, it affects the safety function related to reactor cooling. Due to its potential consequences and the increased probability of a rupture, the ASN classifies it at level 2 on the INES scale with regard to reactor 1 of the Penly nuclear power plant and at level 1 for the other reactors concerned.
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