Now you are misrepresenting facts to present a rosy picture. Is it that hard to go by the facts? Or does nuclear power require lies to be sold?
They found unexpected corrosion cracks in critical cooling pipes across much of the fleet. It was not planned or deferred maintenance.
We lasted the entire winter with half the French nuclear energy fleet off line, when it was needed the most. France was an importer of German coal the entire winter.
Now we are back, but we need to keep in mind that fleets of nuclear plants share the issues. Exactly like when we ground fleets of commercial aircraft. The failure modes are correlated.
Now they actually found a problem during these routine inspections, so they took longer than anticipated. Though that's kind of why you have inspections: so you find problems before they become real problems. Which is what happened here.
And again, the reason it was so many power stations at the same time is that maintenance was deferred during the COVID years (and the chronic underinvestment the last decades). So stuff accumulates. But again, this is because they were able to choose when to do this.
Which is pretty much the opposite of how it was portrayed in the press in Germany and how it stuck in the minds of anti-nuclear advocates.
Is it so hard to stick to the truth when promoting nuclear power?
They unexpectedly found corrosion cracks and immediately shut down the plant. Based on this they precautionar shut down several plants. Then as fast as possible they inspected the rest of the fleet and shut down the offending reactors.
Is it so hard to stick to the truth when trying to denigrate nuclear power?
(Narrator: yes it is)
The shutdowns for the inspections and maintenance were planned. Not for a single plant, for a lot of plants. The inspections found a problem. The shutdowns were extended so they could be fixed, in the original plants and in other plants that might also be affected.
The shutdowns, the inspections and the maintenance were planned.
What they found was obviously not planned. If you could plan for what you find during an inspection, you wouldn't need an inspection. That's why you inspect.
They found unexpected corrosion cracks in critical cooling pipes across much of the fleet. It was not planned or deferred maintenance.
We lasted the entire winter with half the French nuclear energy fleet off line, when it was needed the most. France was an importer of German coal the entire winter.
Now we are back, but we need to keep in mind that fleets of nuclear plants share the issues. Exactly like when we ground fleets of commercial aircraft. The failure modes are correlated.