EDF announced this morning that it had been alerted by Framatome about welding defects observed on some nuclear power plants in service. The group has informed the French Nuclear Safety Authority of this fact and is not commenting at this stage on the identity of the reactors concerned or on the consequences that this failure could have on the operation of the fleet.
However, the impact seems significant, since it could affect about 20 reactors, or more than a third of the French fleet.
The markets reacted strongly to this announcement this morning: EDF’s share price was down by more than 7% and European electricity markets were bouncing back, particularly on short and medium-term maturities. CAL 2020 France was trading at noon at around €52.70/MWh, up by €3/MWh compared to the previous day’s close.