Three nuclear reactors shut down after earthquake in south-eastern France

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According to the Drôme prefecture, the earthquake caused no apparent damage to the buildings of the Cruas nuclear power plant. PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

The prefecture of Drôme (south-east) has announced the shutdown of the reactors of the Cruas nuclear power plant, after an earthquake that Monday, November 11 in the Rhone Valley.

The facilities of the Cruas nuclear power plant (Ardeche) " function normally, " said Monday evening the prefect of the Drôme at a press conference. " No damage to the buildings was found, " he said. However, the reactors had to be shut down " in the coming hours " in order to allow a thorough audit of the installations, in accordance with the safety and precautionary procedure established by the EDF operator.

The earthquake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, hit Le Teil (Ardèche), about ten kilometers from the Cruas nuclear power plant and about thirty kilometers from the Tricastin site (Drôme), which This group includes a nuclear power plant and Orano (formerly Areva) nuclear fuel treatment plants.

# Earthquake in Drôme Ardèche - At the nuclear sites concerned, no risk was detected. At @EDFCruasMeysse, in accordance with the safety & precaution procedure established by the operator, a shutdown of the reactors will take place in order to allow a thorough audit of the installations. pic.twitter.com/fxQzsl2IQm

The Nuclear Safety Agency (ASN) had previously assured that the earthquake had caused " no apparent damage " to these sites, but had asked EDF to check whether the values ​​recorded exceeded the thresholds from which a further examination of facilities, requiring the shutdown of the reactors, is necessary.

It had been 16 years since continental France had not experienced an earthquake of such magnitude. It occurred in Ardèche, " 26 km southeast of Privas ", at 11:52, said in a statement the Central Bureau seismologique français (BCSF) of Strasbourg. It mainly hit the Drôme and Ardèche, including Montélimar where a person was seriously injured in the fall of a scaffold, according to the prefecture of the Drôme. Three other people were slightly injured in Ardeche " following a panic attack ," said on Twitter the prefect of this department.

11 November earthquake: damage in the municipality of Teilhttps: //t.co/kxw7WYAvaI

The quake was felt as far as Saint-Étienne, Grenoble, Lyon, and even in the south of France, but it was in Teil, a locality bordering Montélimar with more than 8,500 inhabitants, that the earthquake was the most damage to property.

(With AFP)