Nuclear stations need €50bn work
Safety watchdog says reactors are safe to continue operating but need vital improvements
NUCLEAR safety watchdog ASN has given the 19 power station sites and 58 reactors in France the green light to carry on operating - but said they needed €50 billion of improvements to bring safety standards up to scratch.
The Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire launched the 10-month survey after the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan. Its findings are far from a clean bill of health for the industry but it said "the installations examined showed a sufficient level of security that none faced an immediate shutdown".
It added that in order to continue operating, the sites needed urgent work to improve safety in the face of extreme circumstances and natural disasters. The operators have already budgeted €40bn for works over the coming years but have been told an extra €10bn of improvements is needed.
In addition, a "rapid intervention force" should be set up by 2014 to help contain any nuclear incident across the country.
EDF, Areva and CEA - who run the 19 sites - have been called to a meeting with Energy Minister Eric Besson on January 9 to agree a timetable for the works. Power plant bosses have until June 30 to give ASN concrete plans for improvements.
ASN president André-Claude Lacoste said it was an investment of tens of billions of euros with "hundreds of people to recruit and train" and added that installing new emergency power generators at each of the reactors would cost "tens of millions of euros each".
He said he could not imagine that the costly changes would not lead to higher power bills.
At present EDF spends €2bn a year on maintenance at its sites - by 2015 this will rise to €4bn a year because of the increasing age of the sites and the need for large-scale works.
Commentators at Le Point noted that, especially with the older sites, there was still a lack of transparency on the site's operation and evacuation procedures.
New regulations on safe siting of power stations date only from 2008 but there are 34 reactors more than 28 years old and 20 more than 22 years old. France's oldest nuclear site - at Fessenheim in Alsace - has been operating for 35 years.
