France orders nuclear shutdowns to allow reactor safety checks after the discovery Nearly a third of France’s nuclear reactors have been shut down by industry regulators as revelations emerge about the supply of sub-standard parts.

As investigations into falsified documents and excess quantities of carbon in steel continue, more closures are expected…serious strain on finances of French nuclear giant EDF and causing electricity price rises across western Europe…It is also very bad news for the climate. France is reopening mothballed coal plants and burning more coal than it has for 32 years. Neighbours, including Germany, which normally take cheap nuclear power from the French, are also powering up old fossil fuel plants and exporting the electricity to France at premium prices. 

 Japan Casting & Forging Corporation (JCFC), also allegedly involved in falsifying quality control documents for parts supplied to reactors both at home and in France…One problem is too much carbon in steel components and containment vessels, which will make them brittle, carbon content well above specified safety limits, leading to fears… catastrophic failures in plants currently operating.. ..Second, related, problem is forged, falsified or incomplete quality control reports about the components themselves. Areva, the troubled French state-owned nuclear component manufacturer, is reviewing all 9,000 manufacturing records from its giant forge at Le Creusot dating back as far as 1943. This includes 6,000 parts made for nuclear reactors – some of them outside France.

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