The date will remain symbolic, after years of debate: Saturday is the day of closure of the number 1 reactor in Fessenheim. But it only marks the beginning of the process: after this reactor built in 1978, another will be shut down in June. Europe 1 takes stock of the procedure, its cost and the timetable for decommissioning the plant.
>> READ ALSO - How will the dismantling of the Fessenheim plant take place?
What is the process going to be?
The complete shutdown of the number 1 reactor in Fessenheim will take twenty years, from the evacuation of fuel to waste management. The very delicate first phase - fuel evacuation - alone will take five years alone. "There is a first priority: it is the evacuation of the fuel", confirms at the microphone of Europe 1 Pierre Bois, of the nuclear safety authority (ASN).
"Once it is removed, the risk of nuclear accident is eliminated. This phase will last approximately three years. In parallel, a certain number of cleaning operations must take place in order to drain the circuits, make a first decontamination, and prepare the ground for dismantling operations. "
Contaminated waste will go to storage centers, or will be buried in Bure, in the Grand Est region, for the most radioactive. As for fuel, it will leave for the La Hague reprocessing center.
How much will it cost?
The decommissioning operation of the nuclear power plant is estimated at between 350 and 500 million euros. The range is wide because it is the first time that EDF has tackled a project of this scale. In addition, the gross cost of dismantling all 58 pressurized water reactors was estimated in 2015 at 75 billion euros by EDF, an amount considered underestimated by a parliamentary report of February 2017.
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The calendar
In June 2020, the second reactor should stop operating. Twelve other reactors will have to close by 2035 to go down to 50% nuclear.
EDF has proposed to the government to study the shutdown of "pairs of reactors" at the Blayais, Bugey, Chinon, Cruas, Dampierre, Gravelines and Tricastin sites. Sites that each have at least four, the idea being to avoid the closure of entire plants.