While the energetician faces an unprecedented corrosion problem which limits the production of his power stations, a leak presented as without gravity occurred on November 2, in Civaux, during a waterproofing control.
by marjorie cessac and perrine mouterde
A leak, noted within the primary circuit of the number one reactor of the Civaux plant (Vienne), was added to the many difficulties encountered by EDF to operate its nuclear fleet. Overall on November 2, during a hydraulic test, while the reactor was stopped and did not contain fuel, it is presented as without gravity, but none of this had ever been observed in one French power plants so far.
“There is no risk for the environment or for public health,” assured Karine Herviou, Deputy Managing Director of the Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Institute (IRSN), in an interview with Franceinfo Posted on November 7. EDF specifies that no speaker was contaminated or injured. During the tightness of the main primary circuit – which cools the heart of the reactor – a specific device used for this test did not resist the increase in pressure, which caused the flood of a adjacent room for the reactor building, where radioactivity is high (150 millisieverts).
“It is a kind of plug that jumped, no doubt because he had been badly screwed, specifies Karine Herviou in the world. But there is no failure of the circuit himself or stake of safety. “This type of control is carried out with each ten -year visit. The restart of the cival reactor, arrested since August, was scheduled for January 8. If EDF considers that it is “too early” to affirm that the calendar will be offset, there is, according to the nuclear safety authority (ASN), “a strong probability” for the judgment to be longer than expected, The operator first in front of repairing then start the hydraulic test again.
“We have a” strategy
This hazard is added to a succession of others having led to a historically low level of nuclear production in France, while the supply of electricity remains tense in Europe as winter approaches. Tuesday, November 8, only 30 of the 56 park reactors were connected to the network. In addition to the effects of the COVVI-19 pandemic on the calendar of maintenance operations and the multiplication of decennial visits, EDF has faced since the end of 2021 to an unprecedented problem of corrosion under stress.
According to Régis Clément, deputy director of the nuclear production division at EDF, sixteen reactors have been identified as “sensitive or strongly sensitive” to these defects on welds of the safety injection circuit. On these sixteen, “ten are being processed” and six will be checked in 2023. The rest of the park should be inspected in 2024 and 2025.
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