‘Pray for winter’: Rust eats away at French nuclear reactors

The French energy sector faced an unexpected and rather dangerous problem. Nuclear reactors all over the country are corroded by rust. How to deal with it, local experts do not know. And replacing equipment can take years.

As a result, many nuclear power plants were forced to stop working. About the situation, which already threatens with an energy collapse for the whole of France – in the story REN TV.

Cross on plans: rust details

Unexpectedly and unpredictably – this is how the head of the French nuclear department assesses the situation that is developing right now at most of the country’s nuclear power plants. What experts have discovered risks putting an end to all the plans of the authorities to achieve at least some kind of energy independence.

“We found corrosion of the reactor cooling mechanism already at seven different stations. For the first time, last year, then it was about an already stopped, that is, non-operational reactor. In other cases, we had to shut down the reactor due to the threat of emergency. Corrosion is significant – up to 5 millimeters deep and occurs near the joints in the system, that is, it represents a great danger! – said the head of the department for the development of equipment for nuclear power plants at the Ministry of Energy of France.

How to replace damaged areas

The situation is so alarming to the authorities that an emergency meeting of the French Senate was devoted to it. After all, the authorities were counting on nuclear power plants when they refused Russian energy resources. And the stations let us down – just at this moment.

“We are talking about a very complex problem, difficult to repair. Therefore, even replacing the affected areas can take up to two years … Unless, of course, some new problems or more global corrosion are not found,” – said the head of the French nuclear security agency Bernard Doroshchuk.

Experts frankly admit that they do not know what to expect next from an unexpected scourge that has engulfed the reactors. Until now, French power engineers have seen such rust only once – when they were invited to a nuclear power plant in Japan. That is, the French simply do not have experience in dealing with it.

“Until now, specialists have concentrated on studying a new hazard, describing it and deciding how to eliminate it, but so far there are no developments on how to prevent corrosion at other nuclear power plants already built or even at least those that we are going to build in the future. If do not act now – we risk being left without working nuclear power plants in a couple of months,” Yves Maryniak, a spokesman for the energy company, said.

Only 30 out of 56 French reactors are working

Now there are 56 reactors in the country – but only 30 of them are working. In Paris, they planned to bring this number to 49 by the end of the year, but these plans will definitely not come true. Over the past week, corrosion was found on two more reactors – plans to put them into operation were abandoned. The locals are very unhappy.

“It is very necessary that they work again. Without them, we will all freeze here,” – shared a local resident.

Ironically, it was at the enterprises where they found corrosion that employees went on strike a month ago. The reactors were not maintained, leaving only the bare minimum of essential workers on site. Now they are all ready to work – but it has become too dangerous to start the reactor back. Energy production plans had to be revised towards reduction – by 15 terawatt / hour! This would be enough to calmly illuminate and heat the whole of Paris all winter.

“Pray for a mild winter”

“We will absolutely feel the lack of energy right now. And we must pray that the winter is mild, then there will be no mass outages,” – shared nuclear physicist Emmanuel Galiche.

What to do if the winter still turns out to be frosty or snowy – the authorities can’t figure it out yet. But it seems that they are stubbornly preparing to freeze their own population rather than return to normal relations with Russia, which for many years supplied gas and energy to Europe.