The French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, assured that EDF, Europe’s largest nuclear energy operator, must restart all reactors by the winter to help the country alleviate the problems caused by the difficulty of supply of energy, aggravated by the War in Ukraine.
“There is a schedule that predicts that, starting in October, every week, a new (nuclear) plant will come back into operation”, said Pannier- Runacher, according to information from the agency Associated Press.
Currently, according to the agency Reuters , 32 of the 56 EDF reactors are stopped for maintenance or due to technical problems.
France has 56 nuclear power plants that supply 70% of your electricity. According to Radio France Internationale, in 2014, the government wanted to reduce the share of nuclear energy in electricity generation to 50% until 2025, but this goal was postponed in 2019 to the year of 2025.
Last week, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had warned that, in the worst-case scenario, energy problems during winter could lead to power cuts of up to two hours in French homes.
Minister Pannier-Runacher assured that French gas storage stocks are currently 92% full. According to her, although Russian gas deliveries are currently at their lowest point, they have not completely stopped.
Ukraine’s energy and war problem
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There is a concern about the supply of energy to the countries of the European Union, mainly due to the dependence on Russian gas.
On Friday (2), the Russian state company Gazprom announced the total suspension of gas flow through the Nord Stream pipeline indefinitely, due to an oil leak identified during maintenance of the only compressor station still in operation.
Over the past few months, Russia’s gas supplies were already dwindling in response to Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. This even leads to European green plans being left behind and even coal plants that had been deactivated to start working again, as shown by a report by Gazeta do Povo
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Russia defends itself from criticism and accuses the West
This Sunday (4), Russia defended itself from criticism from the European Union (EU) for cutting off the gas supply through the Nord Stream pipeline, stating that the measure has its origins in Western sanctions and actions.
In an interview with the state television channel Rossía -1, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, in charge of energy issues, assured that the indefinite suspension of gas emissions by Nord Stream is not the fault of the Gazprom company.
“Gazprom has earned its reputation as a reliable guarantor of energy security and as a reliable supplier over many decades. We are convinced that Gazprom has not taken a single step to tarnish that reputation. tion”, said Peskov.
Recalling that, last Friday (2), the Russian consortium announced the complete suspension of the flow of gas to Europe through Germany, due to a leak of oil found in a turbine of the only compressor station still in operation, which the EU classified as a “fallacy”.
“If the Europeans make an absolutely absurd decision, refusing to repair their equipment, or rather, equipment that belongs to Gazprom, but which, by contract, they must repair, this is not Gazprom’s fault, it is the fault of the politicians who made the decision on sanctions,” added the Kremlin spokesman.
