by Vladimir Danilov, New Eastern Outlook:
The global energy crisis, arguably the worst since 1973, is forcing adjustments in nuclear energy policy in the European Union and many other parts of the world. Washington’s policy of squeezing Russia out of the European energy market, decommissioning European NPPs and forcing a “green agenda,” for the express purpose of strangling its main economic rival, the EU, has completely failed.
Under these circumstances, a number of European countries have now turned to “reanimating” previously closed NPPs. Among such countries, France is probably the only one in the EU to have managed to preserve the future for its nuclear energy by withstanding the “green” attacks. However, due to corrosion, the timeline for restarting nuclear reactors has become longer and the works now conducted “require more time spent in the reactor section of the structures,” the French news agency RFI reported. In this context, contractors of the French energy corporation EDF, which is involved in the maintenance of nuclear reactors, are studying the possibility of increasing radiation dose standards so that employees can work longer inside the reactor, an activity that was not originally planned.