French energy group EDF has reported a major crack in a cooling pipe at a nuclear power plant on the Channel coast. This is the latest such incident to plague the energy sector, already struggling to compensate for the unavailability of Russian natural gas.
The electricity company has been beset by maintenance problems at ageing reactors over the past year. Problems have forced EDF to close down more than a dozen facilities for checks and emergency repairs.
The group last month reported the latest "serious corrosion problem" on an emergency cooling system at its Penly 1 plant in northern France, one of 16 reactors taken offline in the past twelve months.
The report went largely unnoticed until it was reported in French media on Tuesday.
The crack is 15.5 cm long and up to 2.3 cm deep, covering around a quarter of the circumference of the pipe which is 2.7 cm thick, France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said late on Tuesday.
The regulator ordered EDF to "revise its strategy" in the face of corrosion problems which could have major financial repercussions for the debt-laden state-owned utility, as well as for France's energy production capacity.
The country, once a leading electricity exporter in Europe, needed to import power from Germany and other neighbours over the winter because of the problems in its nuclear sector, which normally supplies around 70 percent of its energy needs.
The crack at Penly does not pose an immediate danger to the environment or human life, the regulator said, given its location on a pipe system that is designed to be used to cool the reactor only in the event of an emergency.
"What is new is the depth of the crack," nuclear safety expert Yves Marignac, who is an advisor to the ASN, told the French press agency AFP.
EDF's debt ballooned to €64.5 billion in 2022, while losses totalled €17.9 billion.
(With news agencies)
