Why was French nuclear power defeated by South Korean nuclear power?
France has failed to build new nuclear power plants for more than 20 years, resulting in a shortage of manpower... They can't find welders and have to hire workers from the U.S.
In the bidding process for the Czech nuclear power plant contract, the competitor to France's Electricite de France [EDF], a state-owned electric company similar to Korea Electric Power Corporation, was EDF itself.
Last March, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Prague to secure the Czech nuclear power plant contract. Additionally, he exerted significant influence at the European Union [EU] level to have atomic energy recognized as green energy to become an object of financial support.
Despite these efforts, EDF lost again to Hanwha Heavy Industries (HANWHA) in its second competition with the latter, after winning the UAE contract in 2009. Due to the failure to secure the Czech nuclear power plant contract, EDF did not receive any new contracts overseas aside from those in France.
The reasons for EDF's failure are numerous, but the core issue is its inability to establish confidence in adhering to construction schedules and budgets. The latest completed unit of EDF, the Flamanville 3 in France, was originally scheduled for completion in 2012 but was delayed by 12 years. As a result, construction costs exceeded the initial budget by 9.9 billion euros.
The reason why EDF, once the leader of the world's nuclear industry, found itself in this situation is largely due to the heavy blow of not building new nuclear power plants domestically for over 20 years since the early 2000s. They are currently experiencing a loss of experience and a shortage of technical personnel due to large-scale retirements. A typical example is the pipe leak problem discovered at a French nuclear power plant in 2022; unable to find welders to fix it, they had to bring people in from the U.S.
There are 220,000 workers in the French nuclear power industry classified as aging personnel, but hiring new ones is not easy. This is because young people prefer to work in renewable energy fields that receive media attention. France's case well demonstrates the importance of maintaining the competitiveness of the nuclear power industry by continuously injecting human resources through tenders and bids to sustain the industrial ecosystem.
Source: Chosun Ilbo
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831731607789568/
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