Concern continues to grow on the side of French nuclear power plants. Reactor maintenance operations, crucial to restart before this winter, are delayed again this Friday due to wage strikes.
According to Virginie Neumayer, FNME-CGT (National Federation of Mines and Energy) union delegate quoted by Reuters, these works are delayed in nine reactors, spread over five sites.
The movement that began two weeks ago affects three reactors at the Cruas plant (Ardèche), two reactors at the Tricastin plant (Drôme), two reactors at the Cattenom plant (Moselle), one reactor at the Bugey plant (Ain ) and a reactor at Gravelines (North).
Employees are also preparing strikes at the Dampierre (Loire) and Paluel (Seine-Maritime) plants for this weekend, Virginie Neumayer said.
Impact
Good news though, wage negotiations within EDF will start “next week”, the delegate said.
For her part, the Minister for the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said on Friday morning at LCI that she hoped the situation would calm down. “We have just learned that the CGT Energie signed the sectoral agreement on salary increases (…) I think it is good news to alleviate the situation.”
It is urgent because the restart schedule for the plants undergoing maintenance is tight. 25 nuclear reactors are still at a standstill, 15 are used for the inspection or repair of welds affected by corrosion. But all the pair must be operational to ensure sufficient electricity production for this winter.
“The strikes may have an impact on certain maintenance work,” EDF told AFP, without being able to immediately assess whether the return-to-grid schedule for these facilities would be affected by these moves. If necessary, EDF would be obliged to communicate it.
Source: BFM TV
