Report by the Court of Auditors on the maintenance of EDF's nuclear power plants in France

The Court's report analyzes the progress made and the persistent difficulties in implementing this policy. It highlights, in particular, the difficulties encountered by the operator in maintaining the operational performance level of the fleet, the need to clarify the strategy for re-internalizing critical skills, to ensure the quality of subcontracting, and to continue efforts undertaken to guarantee the safety and availability of the fleet.

In particular, the Court made the following findings:

• Maintenance activities carried out on the 56 historical reactors in EDF's operating fleet (excluding the Flamanville EPR) have intensified since 2014. The annual cost exceeds €6 billion, due to the aging of the fleet, the strengthening of safety requirements, particularly following the Fukushima-Daiichi accident, and the preparation for the ten-year inspections linked to the reactor life extension program.
• The availability of the nuclear fleet has fallen to an average of 74% over the period 2014-2024, compared to 80% during the previous decade, due to the increased duration of unit outages during which increasingly important maintenance work is carried out and fuel is reloaded, the treatment of anomalies related to stress corrosion cracking and the consequences of the health crisis;
• Although EDF has been able to respond to major industrial crises in recent years, structural constraints persist in the planning, coordination and execution of maintenance operations, which continue to weigh on the industrial performance of the fleet and the duration of unit outages;
• In this regard, the START 2025 Plan, an ambitious program launched in 2019, aims to increase the availability of the reactor fleet by reducing the duration of reactor outages and restart delays; it continues to be deployed progressively across the entire fleet;
• The industrial program of the "Grand Carénage", intended to extend the life and modernize the reactors, estimated at more than €100 billion between 2014 and 2035, requires financial monitoring and reinforced management;
• The Court indicates that continuing the operation of the nuclear fleet for up to 50 years, or even 60 years, is an advantageous option for the French electricity system since it should prove profitable for EDF and its cost appears competitive compared to the construction of new production capacities, provided that the production forecasts are actually met and that the conditions and prices of electricity sales are not degraded.

Read the report