Available French nuclear capacity is seen rising ahead of next winter, with six offline reactors expected to return to operation sooner than scheduled, daily Les Echos cited an official from France’s EDF as saying on Thursday, May 25.

EDF’s Deputy Director of Nuclear Production Regis Clement told the paper the company had last week decided to accelerate the return of the Nogent 1 and 2, Cattenom 1 and 2, and Belleville 1 and 2 reactors to the grid.

“Except for major contingencies, fleet availability will be 5 to 10 Gigawatts (GW) above that of 2022 at the beginning of winter,” Clement said.

The company sees nuclear availability at 35 GW in October and 50 GW in early January next year, he said, versus a maximum of 35-38 GW prior to Dec. 1 last year and 45 GW in early January 2023.

State-owned EDF, which runs Europe’s largest nuclear fleet, took several reactors offline last year to carry out checks and repairs after signs of stress corrosion were discovered at some, dragging 2022 output to historic lows and adding to upward pressure on energy prices.

Earlier this year, strikes over a widely unpopular increase in France’s retirement age temporarily delayed the maintenance plans.

EDF had no further comment on the Les Echos report.