The Chinon
Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...
Plant () is near the town of
Avoine in the
Indre et Loire ''département'', on the river
Loire
The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.
It rises in the so ...
(approximately 10 km from the town of
Chinon
Chinon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginn ...
) in central France. The power station has seven reactors, of which three have been closed.
Operation
It employs approximately 1,350 full-time workers. The operator is
Électricité de France
Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...
(EDF).
Performance
The site houses three of the first generation of French plants, of
UNGG-type (similar to the
Magnox
Magnox is a type of nuclear power / production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The ...
design), which have now closed. These reactors were named EDF1, EDF2, EDF3 and were later renamed into Chinon-A1, Chinon-A2, Chinon-A3.
Four of the first French PWR series were later built on the site (Chinon-B1, Chinon-B2, Chinon-B3, Chinon-B4). The site has four cooling towers, specially designed to be low-profile in order to minimise the visual impact on the Loire.
It is larger than most French plants and feeds approximately 6% of French electricity demand.
Events
*During the unusually cold 1986-87 winter, the water intake from the river, as well as several other important pieces of equipment and machinery, froze.
*On 21 December 2005, sand accumulated inside the tertiary cooling circuit, threatening to block it. This could have stopped cooling of all the reactors.
*On 4 September 2008, some industrial oil was accidentally discharged to the river in a maintenance operation. It was not radioactively contaminated.
*On 30 April 2009, a bomb alert caused an evacuation of the plant and an intervention by several units of army security forces.
*On 10 February 2024,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
's
EDF shut down two
nuclear reactors
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for commercial electricity, marine propulsion, weapons production and research. Fissile nuclei (primarily uranium-235 or plutonium-2 ...
due to a fire at the plant.
Other info
*Since 1986, the closed Chinon A1 reactor has been redeveloped to hold the French Atom Museum.
*The INTRA (INTervention Robotic on Accidents) group, a national nuclear event emergency intervention group equipped with remotely guided, radiation hardened machinery, has its headquarters at the plant.
Reactors
See also
*
Nuclear decommissioning
References
External links
*http://www.geniustour.com/en/pages/detail.php?j=Nuclear-Museum-of-Chinon
{{Authority control
Nuclear power stations in France
Buildings and structures in Indre-et-Loire
Électricité de France