Shutdown of four nuclear reactors: is there a risk of a blackout?

Europe 1 2:18 p.m., December 17, 2021

INTERVIEW

After the rise in gas prices, will the shutdown of French power stations further increase the price of electricity? On Wednesday, EDF decided to suspend four reactors for maintenance. While we have not even entered the heart of winter, the shutdown of these four reactors poses the threat of a blackout on the French network. Greg de Temmerman, physicist, associate researcher at Mines-ParisTech PSL and director general of the Zenon Research think-tank was the guest of Europe 1.

"During the ten-yearly outage of a reactor, EDF noted a cracking problem in a safety injection circuit. They decided to shut down this reactor as a preventive measure and shut down three other reactors in the same generation to verify the same problems ", explains the researcher.

These reactors will be shut down at least until January 23, he said.

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Beware of temperature drops

Problem: it is during this period that temperatures drop in France, and it is therefore at this time that the demand for electricity is the most important. "On November 22, RTE [Electricity transmission network, Editor's note] published a note on the outlook for the winter and announced that until the end of the year there were not really any big problems . The usual problems are more in January-February, when it is colder. This is where we need the most electricity. The question is: will the winter be very cold and How will wind and solar power produce in January-February? ”explained the guest from Europe 1.

"It is estimated that for every degree less you need 2.4 gigawatts more - the equivalent of two large reactors. If you have a really big cold snap in February, if it's a windless period, that will be a more complicated period ".

However, electricity prices should not be impacted by the shutdown of the four reactors.