2023-08-21 17:24:51
Inside reactor number 1 of the Tricastin nuclear power plant, June 27, 2019. PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP
This is a first for the French nuclear fleet. By a decision made public on August 10, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) authorizes a first reactor, reactor number one at the Tricastin power plant (Drôme), to operate for up to fifty years. A decision which comes at a time when the question of the “lifespan” of power plants is crucial for the country’s energy future: to meet the growing needs for low-carbon electricity over the coming decades, the executive wishes to extend, in as far as possible, all reactors “until sixty, and beyond”.
ASN’s decision, communicated in the middle of the summer but taken on June 29, ends a very long process to extend the life of the oldest reactors in the fleet, i.e. 32 reactors of 900 megawatts (MW), beyond forty years. In February 2021, ASN paved the way for this extension with a generic decision, which must be confirmed by a review of each reactor, taking into account its specificities. Commissioned in 1980, Tricastin’s number one reactor was the first to have carried out, in 2019, this in-depth examination, called the “fourth ten-year inspection” (VD4).
“ASN can only issue a final opinion following the examinations have been carried out on each reactor, EDF has submitted a conclusions report and the public inquiry has been held, which took place at the beginning of 2022 for reactor number one from Tricastin, explains Yves Guannel, head of the aggression and safety reviews office within the ASN’s nuclear power plant management. This entire process has been completed for Tricastin reactor one and will take place in the same way for the other reactors. »
Ten-year review
“The examination process for the passage of forty years is part of two complementary key stages: a so-called generic phase common to all reactors of the same type and a phase specific to each reactor, integrating local specificities such as the levels of hazard to take into account or the cold source, adds EDF, which operates the 56 reactors in the fleet. ASN’s decision on “Tricastin un” brings these two phases to a close. »
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Although French regulations do not provide for a maximum “lifespan” of reactors, an assumption of forty years of operation was adopted during their design. Every ten years, the reactors undergo an in-depth examination, with a view to obtaining authorization to operate for another decade. For the fourth ten-year outage, the objective was to ensure that the 32 reactors that entered service between 1978 and 1987 reached the same level of safety as the most recent reactor, the Flamanville EPR, whose start-up is planned in 2024.
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