After some 17 months of shutdown, reactor 1 of the Civaux nuclear power plant, in Vienne, has started up again.
It was indeed reconnected Wednesday evening to the electricity grid, we learned from EDF.
This reactor had been shut down since August 2021, due to the launch of its ten-year inspection then the discovery, a few months later, in October 2021, of a corrosion problem on the pipes used to cool the reactor in the event of an emergency.
Following this discovery, similar problems had been detected on other sites, leading EDF to control all of its reactors, with the consequence for this winter, a level of nuclear production at its lowest since the park current exists.
At Civaux, after cutting pipes and laboratory analyses, some 44 meters of pipes were replaced at Civaux 1, and 32 meters at the second reactor, Civaux 2. The two reactors also had to carry out their ten-year inspections, which is therefore done for the first, and should be on February 19 for the second.
With the return of Civaux 1 to the national grid, 44 reactors are currently in operation in France, out of a total of 56, contributing to the country's electricity supply, which was still very tight until recently.
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