EDF said on Tuesday it had been informed about shortcomings found in quality controls on a small number of rods installed at its French nuclear sites. EDF said the discovery was made by nuclear equipment manufacturer Areva on 14 of 2,600,000 rods installed at its reactors across France. The rods involved are in use at the Golfech 2, Flamanville 1 and Cattenom 3 reactors, while 11 others were not installed. EDF said the findings would have no operational impact.
Reuters 21st Nov 2017 read more »
French utility EDF said on Tuesday that unforeseen technical issues postponed the restart of four nuclear reactors, while it was waiting for final clearance from nuclear regulator ASN on two others that were also delayed. EDF said an issue occurred during the refuelling of its 1,300 megawatt (MW) Belleville 2 reactor, offline since Oct. 7, leading to the delay of its restart from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2. It did not give details of the technical issues. It said in a written reply to questions that the restart of the 1,300 MW Paluel 3 reactor, on outage since Feb. 11, was delayed again until later on Tuesday, from Nov. 19 previously, due to a technical problem with the reactor’s alternator. Its 900 MW Cruas 3 and St. Laurent 2 reactors were also hit by technical issues during their restart phases, delaying resumption by a few days to Nov. 29 and Nov. 22 respectively. The utility said it is waiting for a final green light from nuclear watchdog ASN to proceed with the restart of the 1,500 MW Chooz 2 and the 900 MW Bugey 3 reactors involved in a components documents probe.
Reuters 21st Nov 2017 read more »
