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The heat wave does not only weigh on the organisms. It also pushes infrastructures to adapt. EDF will thus stop this week the two nuclear reactors of the Central Golfech, in the Tarn-et-Garonne.
A threshold set at 28 ° C
The purpose of these interruptions: to limit the heating of the water necessary for the cooling of the reactors, taken and then rejected in the rivers. "What we are watching is the temperature of the water," says Olivier Lamarre, deputy director of the company's nuclear production at Europe 1. It must not exceed 28 ° C, otherwise the Garonne's environmental balance may be altered, thereby affecting the reproduction of fish or promoting the development of algae and aquatic plants.
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In detail, the reactor number 2 will be stopped Tuesday night and number 1 Wednesday, both until July 30. "The end date of this judgment for environmental constraints corresponds to the end of the available temperature forecasts.This decision is likely to continue," said EDF Monday.
"Our plants are very maneuvering"
"We will do it in all transparency", promises Olivier Lamarre. "Our plants are very maneuvering and can reduce production by 80% in 30 minutes," he says. The heat wave of 2003 had also pushed the electrician to revise its maximum reference temperatures, set at the design of the plants in the 1970s, and therefore to strengthen its equipment.
As for the risks for the supply of electricity, RTE, the manager of the high voltage network, wants to be reassuring. "In the summer, consumption is so much less important than in winter (from one to two) that there will be no problem".
This is not the first time that EDF is forced to adapt to high temperatures. In August 2018, the surge of mercury had already forced the operator to modulate or even stop the production of reactors in Bugey (Ain), Saint-Alban (Isère) and Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin), because of overheating of the Rhone and Grand Canal of Alsace. Last Saturday, the group still had to significantly reduce the power of the two reactors of Saint-Alban and one of the reactors of the Bugey plant. In total, France has 58 active nuclear reactors.