Environmental exemptions to operate five nuclear power plants

The nuclear power plants of Blayais, Saint-Alban-Saint-Maurice, Golfech, Bugey and Tricastin will benefit until September 11 from environmental exemptions concerning water discharge temperatures due to high temperatures, despite impacts possible negative effects on the environment.

A decree published this Saturday in

sets “new thermal discharge limits applicable to the reactors of the nuclear power plant of Bugey, Blayais, Saint-Alban-Saint-Maurice, Golfech and Tricastin”.

Each plant has its own regulatory water discharge temperature limits that must not be exceeded, so as not to heat up the surrounding waterways and to protect the fauna and flora.

The power plants indeed pump water to cool the reactors, before rejecting it.

"Public necessity"

These derogations are justified by the fact that "in the absence of a temporary modification of the current thermal discharge limits, the operator should stop the operation of these nuclear power plants or reduce their production in order to limit the heating of the estuary of the Gironde for the Blayais power station, the Rhône for the Saint-Alban-Saint-Maurice and Bugey power stations, the Garonne for the Golfech power station and the Donzère-Mondragon canal for the Tricastin nuclear power station, even though maintaining a minimum level of electricity production from nuclear power plant reactors (…) constitutes, with regard to the security of the electricity network, a public necessity”.

It is specified that the implementation of these measures will be “associated with a reinforced environmental monitoring program”.

“The Bugey nuclear power plant has just been authorized to discharge water that is warmer than usual.

This is not going to help improve biodiversity in the Rhône, which suffers from summer heat waves, like all French rivers”, reacted on Twitter the NGO France Nature Environnement (FNE).

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