The large plumes of white smoke in the sky of Tarn-et-Garonne will temporarily evaporate. EDF announces having shut down, this Wednesday at the end of the morning, the production unit n ° 2 of the Golfech nuclear power plant. No incident on the horizon this time. The slowdown is due to the heat wave and more precisely to the temperature of the water in the Garonne downstream from the power plant. In recent days, it has exceeded 28 ° C on average and therefore the regulatory threshold beyond which the power plant can no longer draw from the river.
Because "Golfech" is a very large consumer of water, essential for cooling reactors. When the power plant releases it downstream, its temperature is higher, by 0.2 ° C on average. And that, during a heat wave, is more than the flora and fauna of the Garonne can bear.
No impact on electricity supply
"Carried out in complete safety and in agreement with the network manager, these adaptations reduce the quantity of Megawatt / hour produced but have no impact on the continuity of electricity supply", assures EDF in a press release.
The plant is more than idle since its reactor n ° 1 has been in scheduled shutdown since August 10 "to renew part of its fuel and carry out maintenance operations".
The Golfech site, located around 100 kilometers north of Toulouse, provides on average half of the annual electricity consumption of the Occitanie region.
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