When a
mega-earthquake and tsunami caused the unplanned and rapid decommissioning of
the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, the world awoke to the dangers of an over-reliance
on electricity generated from nuclear fission. There are unacceptable hazards
involved in operating just one nuclear reactor, but when a nation, state or
province relies on nuclear for the majority of its electricity (for example, South
Korea, Ontario, Ukraine, France), it risks having a dangerous shortage of
electricity during a nuclear reactor meltdown. The disaster causes not only the
loss of the affected reactors, but it also causes a political crisis, and it forces
a precautionary shutdown of all reactors until regulators can investigate
whether the fatal flaw exists elsewhere in the nuclear fleet. But in fact a
major meltdown disaster is not required to force a nuclearized state into this
situation. The discovery of heretofore unknown risks, such as seismic fault lines,
tsunami risk, threat of terrorism or war, could force regulators to shut down
all reactors until the problem is resolved, if it can be resolved—and if one
follows the logic of nuclear risks, they can’t be solved. A case in point is
the situation occurring in France this season. The report that follows
describes how the recent discovery of manufacturing defects in French nuclear
power plants has forced the national regulator to shut down one third of the
nuclear fleet as peak demand season approaches. During its period of
nuclearization, France encouraged people to consume electricity, promoting
electric heating while doing too little to promote conservation and efficiency.
Now, on top of all the political and social turmoil France has to deal with, it
faces a metaphorical meltdown of its nuclear industry as regulators take
precautions to avoid a literal meltdown.
by Benjamin Desssus and Bernard Laponche, Altereco+Plus,
October 25, 2016
Recent weeks have revealed much about
the actual state of the French nuclear power infrastructure.
It was known already that the reactor pressure vessel for
the EPR in Flamanville was flawed in a way that made it unusable: the
concentration of carbon in the vessel head and the vessel base made the steel
susceptible to cracking during an instance of thermal shock. This evidently
crucial issue for the future of the EPR in Flamanville is under consideration
by the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) which will release its diagnosis
and prescription next March (2017).
18
Defective Reactors
However, in recent weeks we have also learned that this
defect in manufacturing affects 18 reactors that are presently in service,
either in the pressure vessels or in steam generators. The ASN has thus ordered
a provisional shutdown of these reactors in order to diagnose the gravity of
the situation. The order also halts the planned restart of the steam generator
of one of the reactors at Fessenheim. At fault is the manufacturer Creusot,
owned by Areva, and a Japanese manufacturer which may not have sent its best
products to France.
A
catastrophic situation
This is clearly a catastrophe at several levels. Firstly,
almost one third of the nuclear fleet (parc
nucléaire) is now stopped as winter approaches, which is 20% of total
French production capacity. It is a conundrum for EDF (Électricité de France) which the government has tried to solve by
renouncing its solemn commitment to establishing a floor price applicable to
fossil fuel generating stations. This would have been too costly financially
for the already weakened national enterprise (EDF) which has hastily restarted
all the fossil fuel generating stations that it still possesses.
Furthermore, this discovery of defects in parts as important
as reactor vessels, steam generators and pressurizers is all the more serious
because they had been formally excluded from various hypothetical scenarios of
possible accidents. These parts were excluded from consideration as “possible
sources of rupture.” The discovery of these defects in fabrication casts doubt
on the philosophical structure and the calculations that support judgments
about the probability of major accidents occurring. What are these calculations
worth if we find that serious and irreparable defects exist in the most
critical parts that we had once assumed to be perfect?
Areva
might have quietly falsified the required safety certifications
But there is worse to come. The ASN, concerned by this avalanche of discoveries, investigated Areva to verify whether hundreds of other parts conform to the required specifications. This led to a new surprise, the discovery of hundreds of “locked files” within which Areva might have quietly falsified the required safety certifications. This practice seems to be so common that it is hard to imagine that it is a matter of an isolated occurrence.
The
unimaginable has occurred
Anomalies and falsifications of materials once supposed to
be perfect: it’s all there. As we were told by Jacques Repussard in 2011, then
general director of the Institut de radioprotection et de
sûreté nucléaire (IRSN), “We have to imagine the unimaginable.” With half of
the French nuclear fleet in a state of degraded safety, we are in an unimagined
situation, and it is very serious. Before these “discoveries,” the president of
the ASN declared, “A major nuclear accident is possible anywhere.” In the
present situation, it is more and more possible in France.
A
parallel situation to dieselgate comes to mind
The comparison to dieselgate in Germany comes to mind:
technical norms not respected on materials critical for safety, numerous
falsified certificates in order to get approval from authorities. It’s all
there, but with a crucial difference. This wasn’t like in Germany where the scandal
occurred under the direction of a dictatorial head of a multinational
corporation. In France it occurred in enterprises that were quasi-nationalized,
led by the aegis of the technocratic elite who pride themselves in their honesty
and devotion to the nation. And all this occurred with total impunity for the
managers responsible.
The situation should make all citizens reflect on the limits
of our democracy…
__________
For more on this story, see the Greenpeace report
JAPANESE STEEL AT CENTER OF FRENCH NUCLEAR CRISIS – MAJOR QUESTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR JAPANESE REACTOR SAFETY (2016/10/25)
and the power industry magazine:
Lee Buchsbaum, "France's Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns," Powermag, November 1, 2016.
__________
For more on this story, see the Greenpeace report
JAPANESE STEEL AT CENTER OF FRENCH NUCLEAR CRISIS – MAJOR QUESTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR JAPANESE REACTOR SAFETY (2016/10/25)
and the power industry magazine:
Lee Buchsbaum, "France's Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns," Powermag, November 1, 2016.
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