The French CGT union said on Thursday a 24-hour strike in the nuclear sector has cut 9,500 megawatts (MW), or a sixth of the nuclear capacity, by 1330 GMT, pushing intraday power prices higher. The union warned that if the management of state-backed nuclear energy operator, EDF, did not listen to the demands of the workers, who are striking over pay and working conditions, those actions would be repeated.
"We have 80 percent of workers (in nuclear power plants) striking, a nuclear capacity outage level of 9,500 MW in the whole of France, despite the pressures applied by management on staff," the CGT union said in a press release. Production cuts were taking place in 16 out of France's 19 nuclear power plants, the CGT said.
EDF declined to comment on the drop in power capacity but insisted supplies to customers would not be affected. "With such a strong turnout, EDF's management has to react to the demands made by the staff," the CGT said. "The CGT is discussing how to follow up on this action and considers repeating this kind of strike as often as necessary," it added.
The energy sector will strike again on January 29, as part of a wider protest by France's public sector. The strike has pushed French intraday power prices higher, one London-based trader said, adding the Genscape tool, which estimates real-time power production, confirmed a high outage rate in French reactors.
"This is one of the highest outage rates we have seen in the last couple of years," the trader said. The strike coincided with cold weather in France, with national weather forecaster Meteo France showing temperatures at between one and five degrees Celsius. French power grid RTE predicted on its website a peak consumption of 86,240 MW at 1800 GMT.