France shuts down nuclear reactors in heatwave precaution
Paris: France’s main energy provider shut down two nuclear reactors on Thursday as an environmental protection measure to prevent dumping too much hot water into already warming rivers in a record-breaking heatwave.
Power plants critical to the country’s electricity generation use river water to cool their reactors, which then heats water released back into the river.
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On Thursday energy group EDF said it had temporarily shut down two reactors at the Nogent-sur-Seine power plant on the Seine in northern France and at Bugey on the Rhone near the southeastern city of Lyon to comply with the river’s temperature limits.
The Nogent-sur-Seine plant had already reduced production at another reactor days earlier “to limit the temperature rise between water withdrawn from the River Seine and water returned to it, thus protecting aquatic plant and animal life.”
Production shutdowns and reductions at France’s 57 reactors are aimed at meeting environmental obligations designed to protect plant and animal life in waterways used to cool nuclear facilities. During heatwaves, rising river temperatures can force EDF to reduce or even cut production to avoid heating them further by discharging cooling water that is anywhere from a few tenths of a degree to several degrees warmer, depending on the site.
France has been hit hard by the record-breaking deadly heatwave sweeping across Europe.
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EDF shut down a reactor at the Golfech facility on the Garonne River in southwestern France on Monday and reduced production at other facilities.
Nuclear power plants produced almost 70 percent of France’s electricity last year.
“France has sufficient generation capacity to meet electricity demand, including outages at certain generating facilities,” French grid operator RTE told AFP on Wednesday.
