Strikes at French Nuclear Power Plants Endanger Supply Several Weapons Found: Police Arrest Man Near Washington Capitol

French electricity grid operator RTE may see the country’s security of supply jeopardized before the crisis winter due to strikes at nuclear power plants. After up to half of France’s 56 nuclear power plants were offline for maintenance, strikes have now led to several weeks’ delay in restarting some plants, RTE announced in Paris on Tuesday.

“An extension of the labor dispute would have a significant impact on the core of the winter,” says an analysis by the network operator. At least six reactors, which should be back online by the end of October, have been affected by the strikes.

The reason for the many power plants that have been shut down are postponed maintenance during the Corona crisis, which is now being caught up, and corrosion problems for which a dozen plants are checked. Initially, the work went according to plan, but now the strikes by the plant’s staff jeopardized the start-up of as many nuclear power plants as possible for the winter, RTE wrote. As a result, there is very weak security of supply risk for the second half of October and moderate risk for early November.

Due to feared supply difficulties, France has agreed to supply electricity from Germany and in return has been supplying natural gas to Germany since last Thursday. France has filled 98 percent of its own gas storage facilities since late last week. According to the RTE analysis, France needs to worry less about its gas supply. Even with a cold winter, the population cuts were enough to avoid problems.

According to RTE, electricity consumption in France has now fallen by five percent compared to before the Corona crisis. Measured against the first half of the year, the decline in September was three to four percent, in manufacturing the decline was eight to nine percent. (sda/awp/dpa)