Government Incompetence Comes for French Reactors

By Luther Ray Abel

Monday, August 15, 2022

The French have a nuclear problem, primarily of their own making. The Wall Street Journal reported recently on France’s energy woes, with reactor efficiencies dipping with rising temperatures, low water levels (necessary for reactor cooling), and maintenance troubles. The shortfalls are partly attributable to the reality that electronics and energy systems of all stripes do not function as well in extreme temperatures. Still, the evidence points more to man’s shortsightedness and political foolishness as the primary culprit of diminished French fission. 

Joe Wallace writes for the WSJ: 

France is contending with its worst nuclear outages in decades, putting it at greater risk of blackouts this winter than big neighbors experiencing their own energy headaches. The danger is even higher than in Germany, which is bracing for economic pain as Russia throttles gas supplies to punish European allies of Ukraine.

The shortfalls, which traders expect to last well into 2023, mean France has switched from power exporter to importer. That has exacerbated a continentwide squeeze on energy supplies that has already helped push inflation to record rates, threatened the region’s industrial base and hit consumers’ pocketbooks.

Scorching summer weather has worsened Europe’s problems. Water levels have plunged in reservoirs and rivers, making it hard to generate hydropower, transport coal and cool nuclear plants, while reducing the efficiency of gas power plants. Keeping homes, offices and factories cool is creating extra demand for electricity.

However, while plants must lower their output expectations, maintenance failures coupled with the nationalization of the industry best explain the issue. As a U.S. Navy Nuclear Power School dropout, I may not know physics real good, but I can tell you that constant and meticulous maintenance is the reality for every reactor. While incredibly safe, the plants necessitate forethought and inspections as a matter of course. In France, corrosion has brought twelve reactors to a halt as repairs on piping take place.

Paul Brown explains for the Energy Mix:

The fault seems common to a whole series of France’s reactors. The shutdowns affect four of the largest N4 reactors of 1,500 megawatts, five 1,300-MW, reactors of similar design, and three 900-MW units. This, on top of a series of outages at 18 other reactors for repairs, updating, or regular safety checks, has left France with the lowest nuclear output in decades.

These repairs may take years — which some may claim (wrongly, in this case) is a result of French work ethic but seems reasonable if you’re at all familiar with nuclear-maintenance protocols. As one can imagine, one does not simply roll a Miller welding cart up to reactor-piping manifold, spin up your Makita cutoff tool with a wire brush, and start blazing away at welds. Tool control, radiation-level monitoring, shutdowns, tag-outs, and inspections all take time. 

Nuclear power is incredible technology, but it functions similar to a steam locomotive — slow to start, technically demanding to keep at its peak efficiency, and slow to stop. But when she’s doing what she was made to do? Nothing more beautiful.

Perhaps the most unforgivable failure in this French episode is their government’s meddling in the energy market. Already a majority shareholder of the French nuclear power owner (84 percent), the government has capped rates the sector can charge, meaning the government, and ultimately the taxpayer, is subsidizing the industry at break-even levels while offering to fully nationalize the Electricite de France S.A. (EDF) for $9.8 billion, or twelve dollars per share. 

The company is thus hamstrung, taking losses as it attempts to finish building a pair of new reactors and conduct the expensive routine maintenance required by its fleet of reactors, let alone repair the dozen damaged ones. 

For American observers, it is perhaps best to note the limitations of even the best energy production systems when coupled with government intervention, and accept that no matter what our energy composition is in the next few decades, there are inherent weaknesses to electronic and mechanical systems when it comes to heat, corrosion, and upkeep. We need not be disheartened, but neither should we expect that any one solution will be without its eccentricities and particular needs. As Sowell likes to say, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” In this, politics and energy are kin.