PARIS – Half of French nuclear group EDF‘s planned outages in some reactors for maintenance work may take 30 days longer in the next two years, the state-controlled group said on Saturday as it struggles to raise production from record lows this year.
EDF has taken a record number of France’s 56 nuclear reactors offline this year while it conducts inspections and repairs for what is known as stress corrosion affecting the welding connecting pipes in some reactors.
“Taking into account key learnings from controls and repairs undertaken in 2022 on reactors with a 900 MW installed capacity and linked to stress corrosion cracking, EDF considers that, in 2023 and 2024, one planned outage out of two for partial maintenance or ten-year maintenance for this type of reactors may be extended by an average of 30 days,” it said in a statement.
Maintenance outages have pushed power output to a 30-year low this year, forcing France to rely on imports to meet demand just as Europe struggles to cope with cuts in Russian natural gas supplies used for generating electricity.