Cruas (France) (AFP)

This was their "first reflex": just after the earthquake on Monday, the inhabitants of Cruas (Ardèche) verified that their nuclear power plant was still spitting its plumes of steam, a sign that "everything (was) good".

"When it moved, we left the town hall and we turned to the towers of the plant and we saw that it + smoked +," said the mayor of the commune Philippe Touati.

"For very initiated people, they immediately understand that there is no problem, afterwards, for the less initiated, they see smoke.It is as usual, everything is fine," he added. aedile.

Located at the entrance of the town, the cooling towers of the four reactors of the power station are easily visible from the center of this pretty commune of less than 3,000 inhabitants.

The epicenter of the earthquake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, was about fifteen kilometers away. Enough to raise many questions ... especially outside Cruas, according to the edile.

"Maybe we, having the power station in the neighborhood, got used to it, now it's not a reason to minimize the potential risk," he added.

In front of the school, a 35-year-old maternal assistant, Vanessa Charlot, says she was not alarmed after the earthquake. "There was no siren so I was not worried".

At her side, Laurie Ménart, a 34-year-old housewife, was particularly worried about "the power cut". "This earthquake was very impressive, it took me half an hour to understand what had happened," she says.

However, a few hours after the earthquake, it was decided to shut down the three reactors out of the four that were in operation, for a "thorough audit".

- Unique design in France -

"A sensor has reported a shake five times less than the safety threshold," told the press the deputy director of nuclear production of EDF, Regis Clément.

Cruas is the only power station in the French fleet to have earthquake-resistant elastomer bearings, in order to absorb possible shaking.

"Today, clearly, no disorder was observed on the facilities," he continued, indicating that visual inspections were underway.

EDF plans a gradual restart of reactors during the first half of December, she said Thursday, but "we will restart after the agreement of the ASN", the Nuclear Safety Authority, warned Mr. Clement.

According to the CGT secretary of the establishment committee, Franck Santos, "all plants are planned against seismic problems, but the Cruas reactor buildings have the specificity of being based on elastomer pads, so there was no alarm. on the reactor ".

"The only thing we regret is that the national decision of the shutdown took six hours to arrive and could have been taken sooner," added the unionist.

In fluorescent yellow jacket, Thomas Reynaud, scaffolder at the power station, is also reassuring: "For me who sees a little how it happens inside, I tell myself that it is still quite secure".

The coordinator of the Next-Up environmental association, Serge Sargentini, emphasized a "paradox". "The problem is not Cruas who has this anti-seismic design but it is Tricastin that worries us because it is of another design and the conduct is damaged," said the activist.

The Tricastin nuclear power plant in the Drôme, farther from the epicenter of the earthquake, has not been stopped, as no warning threshold has been measured.

For its part, Greenpeace intends to ask "clarifications" to the ASN.

"In principle, in France, for the construction of power plants, we base ourselves on an earthquake of magnitude 4.7 or 4.8 but the one we just know (of 5.4), exceeded this threshold. asks if, adding a safety margin of 0.5, the plants are sized for a 5.9 "earthquake, said nuclear campaigner Roger Spautz.

© 2019 AFP