The Golfech Nuclear Power Plant is located in the
commune of
Golfech
Golfech (; ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
It neighbours the larger town of Valence d'Agen and stands on the D813 road between Bordeaux and Toulouse and beside the canal de Garonne a ...
(
Tarn-et-Garonne
Tarn-et-Garonne (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania Regions of France, region in Southern France. It is traversed by the rivers Tarn (river), Tarn and Garonne, from which it takes its n ...
), on the border of
Garonne
The Garonne ( , ; Catalan language, Catalan, Basque language, Basque and , ;
or ) is a river that flows in southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux †...
between
Agen
Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485.
Geography
The city of Agen l ...
(30 km downstream) and
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
(90 km upstream) on the river
Garonne
The Garonne ( , ; Catalan language, Catalan, Basque language, Basque and , ;
or ) is a river that flows in southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux †...
, from where it gets cooling water, it is approximately 40 km west of
Montauban
Montauban (, ; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Oc ...
.
The station has two operating nuclear reactors that are both
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 the French P'4 design. The plant also has two 178.5-metre-tall
cooling towers
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream, to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove heat and cool t ...
[Hydraulic works study of Golfech cooling towers, 1989, Goldwirt, F.; Ghuzel, M.; Lemoine, P.; https://inis.iaea.org/search/searchsinglerecord.aspx?recordsFor=SingleRecord&RN=21068176] that get water from the Garonne River, only using water to compensate for evaporation; the cooling loop is closed and water is never released back into the river.
In 2002 the plant produced nearly half of the electricity used in the area. It employs nearly 700 full-time workers.
History
In 1965, the
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées (; or ; ) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark. ...
announced its intention to construct a nuclear plant near
Malause. EDF then went about securing a site for the station. In 1967 a board of inquiry initially laid out plans for two
UNGG reactors with an output of 800 MWe each.
Due to falling
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
prices and conflicts between EDF and CEA, the project was delayed, with a decision made between 1967 and 1969. In 1969 after the departure of
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
, CEA gave up on the UNGG plans.
In 1973, a nearby hydroelectric plant of 63 MW was completed and the regional manager for EDF announces plans for PWRs at the same site to be finished by 1985.
In 1978, EDF announces that Golfech would be the site for 4 PWRs eventually of 1300 MWe each.
On 17 June 1979, 5,000 protesters walked on the future site and released balloons.
Events
These are all 1 on the INES scale and occurred in 1998.
* on 28 September 1998 at the time of an operation check of the measuring equipment of the neutron flux in the middle of the reactor, the operator did not respond to one of the signals that should have been investigated.
* on 4 November the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire discovered that on 14 October, EDF ran the reactor with an overpower of 7% for 30 hours.
* on 27 November the
containment building
A containment building is a reinforced steel, concrete or lead structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radioactive steam or gas to a maximum pressure in the range of . The containment is ...
is evacuated following an alarm due to an atmospheric detection of radioactivity. Ten workers are slightly contaminated.
References
{{Authority control
Nuclear power stations in France