Despite stories to the contrary, not a single reactor was shut down in France in 2022 due to lack of water.
Only seven plants were temporarily operated at reduced power during the heat wave, the first time on 11 June and the last time on 15 August 2022, namely Blayais 2 (9.5 hours), Bugey 2 (66 hours), Bugey 5 (4 hours) , Golfech 2 (36.5 hours), St Alban 1 (122 hours), Tricastin 1 (73 hours) and Tricastin 2 (66 hours).
This data can be found in the list of unavailability published by the operator EDF [1].
According to the French audit court, the loss of production due to these cuts amounted to 501 gigawatt hours (GWh). Compared to the annual production, it is only 0.18%. It doesn’t really matter. Even in a historical comparison, the outcomes in 2022 do not run high. In recent years, there have been 11 years with major production losses. In some cases they were even many times higher (Fig. 8).
Fig. 1: Production loss of the French nuclear power plant fleet (in MWh) per year due to high temperatures (heat wave) and low flow rates (low water). Source: Cour de comptes/EDF
Translation of it:
186: Compliance with the legal limits for river or sea temperatures under extraordinary conditions
185: Limitation of evaporation on the cooling towers to comply with the minimum flow rate of the river
184: Compliance with the regulatory limits in connection with the warming of the river
183: Compliance with legal limits for river or sea temperatures under normal conditions
