Drought does not only have consequences for the agricultural sector. The two reactors at the Chooz nuclear power plant in the Ardennes were shut down, one on Friday midnight then the other on Monday evening, due to the low flow of the Meuse. This decision was taken "taking into account current weather forecasts and in accordance with the agreement between France and Belgium", said EDF.
Priority Belgians
“The placement and duration of this shutdown due to environmental constraints will be modified according to the evolution of weather forecasts,” the company said. The cross-border agreement between France and Belgium determines the water flow thresholds of the Meuse to allow Belgian users (industrialists, tourism stakeholders, local communities, etc.) to permanently have sufficient water resources for their needs. activities or installations, recalls EDF in the power station magazine available online.
According to this agreement, when the average over 12 sliding days of the daily downstream flow of the Meuse falls below 22 m3 / second, a production unit must be stopped. And if over the same period, the flow drops below 20 m3 / second, the two production units must be stopped. The number one production unit had already been stopped for several days in the fall of 2018, for the same reasons.
The Chooz nuclear power plant, located by the river, has two reactors of 1,450 MW each, commissioned in 1996 and 1997. With 17.9 billion kilowatt-hours produced in 2019, it represents nearly 4.7% of French nuclear production from EDF. In terms of nuclear safety, the flow of the Meuse necessary to guarantee the cooling of the installations is of the order of 6 m3 / second.
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- EDF
- Drought
- Society