French state-controlled utility EDF said that 2019 nuclear electricity generation in France fell 3.5% from 2018 to 379.5 TWh, missing its revised production target of between 384 TWh and 388 TWh.
EDF attributed the drop in generation to a high volume of outages. It said nuclear output fell in the final month of 2019 by 15.2% to 33 TWh.
EDF attributed the drop in generation to a high volume of outages. It said nuclear output fell in the final month of 2019 by 15.2% to 33 TWh.
The operator of France’s 58 commercial nuclear reactors, which produce about 72% of the country’s electricity, had revised its 2019 nuclear production target from 390 TWh to between 384 TWh and 388 TWh in November because of reactor maintenance and safety checks following an earthquake.
EDF took three units offline at the Cruas nuclear station in the Ardeche region following the quake.
Units 2, 3 and 4 at the four-unit facility were halted for checks, although no damage was found. Unit 1 was already offline for scheduled maintenance.
Regulator ASN approved the restart of Cruas-2 and Cruas-4 on 6 December and of Cruas-3 on 11 December.
