The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), through its Director General, Olivier Gupta, invited EDF on Wednesday to work to provide proof that its reactors will be able to be extended beyond 50 years.
The oldest of the 56 French reactors in service will start to reach this threshold as early as 2030. “We want to conduct in-depth technical discussions with the operators concerned on this issue: how long will nuclear facilities be able to operate safely?” said Olivier Gupta, during a hearing before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly.
In particular, “we call on EDF to establish safety demonstrations on the reactor vessel, to see, beyond 50 years, how long the vessels can hold,” said Gupta.
“It is the non-replaceable component that is likely to have the greatest impact on the operating life of a plant, as the vessels are subjected to irradiation and become more fragile as they go,” he detailed.
Mr. Gupta called for “visibility” on the fate of the park, noting that a renewal or a final shutdown is “not improvised” in terms of safety and waste management.
Three quarters of the power plants “were built in the 1980s; they are approaching forty years, that is to say, the duration foreseen at the time of their design”, he stressed, even if “this is not a cut-off period because there is maintenance work and every decade there are reviews to improve safety”.
In 2021, the nuclear watchdog has accepted the principle of extending the lifespan of the oldest reactors beyond 40 years, while requiring EDF to carry out safety work and make recommendations for each reactor.
But what about after 50 years? “We do not say that it is impossible, we simply say that today it is not proven. This means that we must now put in place the means, at home but first at EDF, so that these proofs are brought or, if necessary, if we cannot bring them, that we know it”, underlined the director general of the ASN.
