Climate: in France, exemptions granted to nuclear power plants despite the heat

The Bugey nuclear power plant, in Ain (illustration).

© Mourad ALLILI/SIPA

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The question of the operation of nuclear power plants arises, Monday, July 18, while France is going through a new heat wave.

The cooling of the reactors heats up the water in rivers and streams.

Four nuclear power plants have obtained a temporary derogation from environmental rules.

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Since 2006, each

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

To operate, a nuclear power plant pumps water into a nearby river or sea to cool its reactors.

The water is then rejected, much hotter, in the same place.

With an abnormally early heat wave, the regulations would like us to stop the reactors so as not to exceed the temperature limits in the rivers. 

But today EDF wishes to “

 ” which is also “

»

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: France is suffocating… it is on the front page of the press review

A temporary derogation from environmental rules has thus been granted to the Bugey nuclear power plant, in Ain, to allow it to continue to operate "

 " during the heat wave, according to a decree published on Sunday in the Official Journal.

The plant will nevertheless operate at a minimum level of power and the discharged water must not warm the Rhône river by more than three degrees.

These derogation requests were submitted by EDF in order to guarantee the operation of the infrastructures, while 29 French reactors out of 56 are currently unavailable for various reasons.

This will be monitored, specifies the decree published in the Official Journal.

Too high a rise in temperature would not be without consequences for biodiversity. 

Three other nuclear power plants are also affected by the measure: those of Golfech in Tarn-et-Garonne, Blayais in

and Saint-Alban in Isère, and this until July 24. 

The derogation device, which aims to guarantee the proper functioning of the electricity network, had so far only been used once, in 2018 for the Golfech plant, for 36 hours.

With early heat this year, EDF has already had to reduce the power of a reactor for a few hours in May at Blayais, then in June at Saint-Alban, on the banks of the Rhône.

The power plants most exposed to the risk of exceeding the thermal water discharge limits are Golfech, Le Blayais, and Bugey, Saint-Alban and Tricastin on the Rhône.

Added to this is Chooz, in the Ardennes, due to a Franco-Belgian agreement on the flow of the Meuse, EDF had indicated in early July.

(and with AFP)

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