France's nuclear fleet remains weak, but concerns eased somewhat this week.

The nuclear regulatory authority has come to the conclusion that the most common type of reactor is "little or very little susceptible" to the phenomenon of stress corrosion, i.e. cracking in pipelines.

This was discovered at the end of last year in the latest generation of reactors and has since had increasing impact in the power plant park - with the result that twelve of the 56 French nuclear reactors are currently not connected to the grid due to proven or suspected corrosion.

It was feared that all the systems would have to be repaired - and of all things in the current energy crisis.

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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Based on the knowledge obtained so far from the power plant operator Electricité de France (EdF) - the nuclear regulatory authority includes almost 70 laboratory tests of weld seams - the corrosion phenomenon is likely to be limited to the four newest reactors with an output of 1450 megawatts and the 20 newer reactors with an output of 1300 megawatts. whereas the remaining 32 older reactors with a capacity of 900 megawatts would not have to be repaired.

The maintenance strategy planned by EdF finds the approval of the supervisors, at least according to the current state of knowledge.

Only on a reactor at the Belleville nuclear power plant on the Loire do they call for inspection to be brought forward.

"Crises of unprecedented magnitude"

EdF intends to examine all reactors over the next three years, with priority given to the 1450 and 1300 megawatt plants.

The nuclear regulatory authority calls the results of the ultrasonic testing method developed by the group in recent months "encouraging".

It is intended to detect the depth of the corrosion cracks located on lines of the so-called safety injection circuit and, in the case of a reactor, also on suction lines of the cooling circuit.

EdF, whose full nationalization for almost 10 billion euros the French National Assembly approved this week, wants to start with the ultrasonic tests in the second half of the year.

The corrosion problem exacerbates the situation on the French electricity market, which is already tense due to the loss of Russian gas supplies.

EdF expects the electricity production from its nuclear power plants to be as low this year as it was 30 years ago.

In recent months, France has become a net importer of German electricity after years of doing the opposite.

This leaves its mark on the EdF balance sheet.

The group is currently in the deep red and posted a net loss of 5.3 billion euros in the first half of the year.

The results reflected difficulties in generating nuclear power in France but also the impact of "tariff brakes" put in place by the government, outgoing EdF boss Jean-Bernard Lévy said on Thursday.

The government has capped the rise in electricity and gas prices since last fall and instructed EdF to sell large amounts of nuclear power to competitors at reduced prices.

A report published by the French Energy Network Agency on Tuesday underlines the seriousness of the situation.

With a view to the gas bottlenecks and the power plant failures, she spoke of the "coincidence of two crises of previously unknown dimensions".

She is particularly concerned that wholesale electricity prices in France are higher than in the rest of Europe, and are even at a “historic distance from German prices” – even though France benefits from one of the lowest gas prices in Europe thanks to diversified supply even far below the German one.

In fact, France has four LNG import terminals and imports less natural gas from Russia.

The Energy Network Agency emphasizes that the corrosion problem has added to an already very busy maintenance schedule.

It has led to greater uncertainty on the market as to whether EdF will be able to put the affected power plants back into operation before winter.

The term prices, i.e. prices for electricity deliveries in the coming months, were fueled further as a result.

Probably a combination of both

But the authority can no longer rationally explain what is currently happening on the market.

In her analysis, she comes to the conclusion that the wholesale electricity prices are "very far" away from those resulting from the modeling of the production costs and the publicly available information about the nuclear power plant park.

If you follow the calculations of the French network agency, the market expects real extreme scenarios with the current prices.

For 200 hours each in the final quarter of this year and in the first quarter of the coming year, the short-term demand for electricity could therefore not be met by an electricity supply from domestic generation in France or from abroad.

That reflects either expectations of severe shortages or a high risk premium on the French electricity market, and likely a combination of both, the agency writes.

She wants to survey market players and makes it clear: "Even pessimistic scenarios regarding the availability of the nuclear power plant and a cold winter do not lead to such a high number of hours in which the price cap is reached as expected from market prices."

Meanwhile, the French Ministry of Energy announced on Wednesday that France could pump up to 130 gigawatt hours of gas a day to Germany next winter – but only if technical upgrades were made.

In the entire winter, this would result in a maximum of 20 terawatt hours.

For comparison: Last January alone, Germany consumed around 130 terawatt hours.