§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What information they have about the operating experience of pressurised water reactor electricity generators in France; whether corrosion of components is a serious problem leading to high maintenance costs; and for what proportion of time the Gravelines and Dampierre reactors have been shutdown in recent years.
§ Viscount UllswaterAccording to figures published by Electricite de France, in 1988, generation from their pressurised water reactor power stations was as follows
1358WA1300 megawatt stations—76,809 gigawatt hours generated; average availability 71.9 per cent.900 megawatt stations—163,950 gigawatt hours generated; average availability 79…0 per cent.I am also advised that, to March 1988, the French have had 266 reactor-years' operating experience of the Westinghouse derived PWR which dominates electricity generation in France.A calculation based on figures published in the 5th October 1989 issue of Nucleonics Week shows that the average availability of the six reactors at Gravelines was 66.4 per cent. in 1987 and 67.5 per cent. in 1988; and that the average availability of the four reactors at Dampierre was 64.8 per cent. in 1987 and 60.0 per cent. in 1988.
Corrosion of steam generator tubes in PWRs has been encountered in a number of countries, including France, but there has been no adverse effect on nuclear safety. Electricité de France has put in hand a programme to replace steam generators in a number of their older design of 900 megawatt PWRs. The steam generators at Gravelines are of the Framatome model 51 M and model 51 B designs and those at Dampierre of the model 51M design. The steam generators to be used at the Sizewell B PWR is of the more recent Westinghouse model F design.
CEGB monitoring of PWR experience worldwide means that if there are any implications for UK PWRs they can be taken into account at the design stage.