The Cruas Nuclear Power Station is a

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 located in Cruas and Meysse communes,

Ardèche Ardèche (; , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche (river), Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.Rhône River The Rhône ( , ; Occitan: ''Ròse''; Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea (Gulf ...

in France. The site is 35 km north of Tricastin Nuclear Power Center and near the town of

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine dialect, Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; ) is a town in the Drôme Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the second-largest town in t ...

. The site contains 4

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan, India and Canada). In a PWR, water is used both as ...

s of 900 MW each, totaling 3600 MW total. The construction began in 1978, the reactors were built between 1983 and 1984. The power station accounts for 4 to 5% of the electric energy production in

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 ...

, and 40% of the annual usage by the Rhone-Alps area. The site employs about 1,200 workers and has an area of 148

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. Cooling water comes from the Rhône river.

Incidents

On 1 December 2009 reactor 4 was shut down after vegetation blocked the intake of the cooling system. The nuclear safety authority Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) classified the incident as level 2 on the

International Nuclear Event Scale The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents. The s ...

. On 5 December 2011, two

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

campaigners breached the perimeter of the Cruas Plant, escaping detection for more than 14 hours, while posting videos of their sit-in on the internet. A 4.8M

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

in the Ardeche region on 11 November 2019 meant that

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 ...

was required to halt production and check equipment at the plant. This period offline will mean that EDF will not meet its annual power production projection.France's EDF cuts nuclear output forecast after quake
SpaceWar.com, 2019-11-14

Mural

In 1991 it was decided by the owners of the plant to carry out a

Mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

project on the cooling towers focusing on the topic of ecology. Author of the mural on the Tignes Dam, Jean-Marie Pierret was selected to design the painting, 9

mountaineers Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

helped to actually paint the structure. The painting reflects the basics of

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

and

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

and is titled ''Aquarius'', and was inaugurated in December 1991. It took 8,000 working hours and of paint to complete the project.

References

{{French nuclear power plants Nuclear power stations in France Électricité de France Montélimar Buildings and structures in Ardèche