EDF to Restart Nine French Nuclear Reactors

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--French energy major Électricité de France SA (EPA:EDF) (Paris, France) has been cleared to restart nine nuclear reactors following investigations into the quality of steel used in key components.

The country's nuclear regulator, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), approved the restart as part of its investigations into 12 reactors that may have been affected by a carbon concentration anomaly in the steam generator channel heads manufactured by Japan Casting and Forging Corporation (JCFC). High concentrations of carbon can weaken the steel and potentially lead to nuclear accidents. France gets about three-quarters of its power from 58 nuclear reactors, all operated by EDF.

ASN said that the restart was approved "following its examination of the results of the inspections carried out and the technical demonstrations provided by EDF for the 900-megawatt (MW) reactors." The reactors coming back online are Bugey 4; Dampierre 3; Fessenheim 1; Gravelines 2 and 4; Saint-Laurent B1; and Tricastin 1, 3 and 4. A further three reactors are still undergoing tests.

"On 7th April 2015, ASN made public the discovery of an anomaly in the composition of the steel in certain zones of the vessel closure head and the vessel bottom head of the Flamanville EPR reactor," ASN stated. "The detection of this anomaly led ASN to ask AREVA SA (EPA:AREVA) (Paris, France) and EDF to learn all possible lessons from this event. Three processes are currently under way:"

• on other components of the EDF reactors, the search for technical anomalies similar to that detected on the Flamanville EPR vessel. This search enabled EDF to identify similar anomalies on the channel heads of certain steam generators;
• manufacturing quality reviews on parts in the Areva NP manufacturing plants, which enabled Areva NP to detect irregularities in the manufacturing files from Creusot Forge;
• initiation of a review of BNI licensee monitoring of their contractors and subcontractors, of ASN oversight and of the alert mechanisms.

Last May, Industrial Info reported that Areva had admitted that irregularities could have affected roughly 400 components used in the nation's nuclear power plants since 1965. For additional information, see May 10, 2016, article--AREVA Admits "Irregularities" with 400 Nuclear Power Plant Components.

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