The Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant () is a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

consisting of 4 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) of CP1 type with 915 MW electrical power output each. The power plant is located in the south of France (

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

and Vaucluse Department) at the Canal de Donzère-Mondragon near the Donzère-Mondragon Dam and the commune Pierrelatte. The power plant is part of the widespread Tricastin Nuclear Site (see below), which was named after the historic Tricastin region. Three out of the four reactors on the site had been used until 2012 to power the Eurodif Uranium enrichment plant, which had been located on the site.

Tricastin Nuclear Site

The Tricastin Nuclear Site (Site Nucléaire du Tricastin) is a collection of facilities run by Areva and EDF located on right bank of the Channel of Donzère-Mondragon (diversion canal of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, 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 dischargi ...

River) south of the city of Valence (70 km upstream) and north of

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

(65 km downstream). The site straddles the border between the departments

(26) and Vaucluse (84), not far from the

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;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.Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, Pierrelatte (both Drôme department),

Bollène Bollène (; Provençal: ''Bouleno'') is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography Bollène is a commune located in the north of the Vaucluse department next to the j ...

and

Lapalud Lapalud (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in southeastern France. Population People from Lapalud * Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907 ...

(both Vaucluse Department). Tricastin is one of the most important nuclear technology sites in the world, along with the COGEMA La Hague site. It is spread out over 600 hectares with over 5000 employees. Some of the involved companies are: * Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) de Pierrelatte (A

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s research facility) * The EDF Nuclear Power Plant Tricastin (3,660 MWe total 915 MWe each) * Comurhex: A Uranium hexafluoride conversion facility * Eurodif: Georges Besse plant for gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment, which operated from 1979 to 2012, replaced by the George Besse II plant for gas centrifuge enrichment with a capacity of 7.5M SWU per year A small number of facilities in Pierrelatte belong to the Marcoule Nuclear Site.

Nuclear power plant

The site houses 4 pressurized water reactors (PWR) of 915 MW each, which were built mostly in the 1970s and brought online in the early 80s. These reactors produce about 25 TWh/year, or 6% of France's electricity. Three out of four reactors were used for powering the Eurodif Uranium enrichment factory until 2012, the year that Eurodif was closed. The close proximity of the power source and usage of the power allowed for smaller transmission losses to occur, which was done at 225 kV. The replacement of the Eurodif gas-diffusion plant by the new SET gas-centrifuge plant (also located at the Tricastin site) reduced the energy consumption of the uranium enrichment process by a factor of 50, freeing up approximately 2700 MWe for the French national grid. Spent fuel is transported by train to the reprocessing plant, just as the new fuel is transported to the plant by train.

Safety

Fire response

Tests on 2 July 2004 by the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (Nuclear Safety Authority) found that it would take 37 minutes to respond to a fire.

Flood

In its initial report following the 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood, the Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety (now part of the Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute) called for the risk of flooding at Tricastin to be re-examined due to the presence of the canal.Rapport sur l'inondation du site du Blayais survenue le 27 décembre 1999
Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety, published 17 January 2000. Retrieved 21 March 2011 From 27 September 2017 to December 2017 the reactors were temporary shutdown while repairs to the canal embankment were made. The regulator Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) had ordered the temporary shutdown because of the risk of embankment failure in the event of an earthquake.

Incidents

Cooling water

During the 2003 European heat wave from 12 to 22 July, the maximum temperature of 27 °C from the piping of waste heat water into the canal was exceeded on several occasions, totalling about 44 hours.

Uranium solution release

In July 2008, 18,000 litres (4,755 gallons) of uranium solution containing natural uranium were accidentally released on the Tricastin Nuclear Site. Due to cleaning and repair work the containment system for a uranium solution holding tank was not functional when the tank filled. The inflow exceeded the tank's capacity and 30 cubic metres of uranium solution leaked with 18 cubic metres spilled to the ground. Testing found elevated uranium levels in the nearby rivers Gaffière and Lauzon. The liquid that escaped to the ground contained about 75 kg of unenriched uranium which is toxic as a heavy metal while possessing only slight radioactivity. Estimates for the releases were initially higher, up to 360 kg of natural uranium, but lowered later. Ground and surface water tests indicated that levels of radioactivity were 5% higher than the maximum rate allowed. In the near vicinity and above ground, the local watchdog group CRIIRAD has detected unusually high levels of radiation. French authorities banned the use of water from the Gaffière and Lauzon for drinking and watering of crops. Swimming, water sports and fishing were also banned. This incident has been classified as Level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. In July 2008, approximately 100 employees were exposed to radioactive particles that escaped from a pipe in a reactor that had been shut down. Additionally, a nuclear waste leak that apparently had remained undiscovered since 2005 spilled into a concrete protective shell in Romans-sur-Isere. Areva, who owns the site, ensured that the leak had not caused harm to the environment, but the issue sparked discussion about an old French army terrain, where nuclear waste was deposited in shielded dumps. The layer of dirt covering the waste is reported to have been thinned due to wind and rain erosion, directly exposing nuclear waste material to open air. Also, the speed with which the Tricastin incident was reported to the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (8 hours) and subsequently to local authorities (another 6 hours) is subject of ongoing discussions. The European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs may send inspectors to the sites to investigate recent events further. Other implications following the incidents resulted in a drop in the sale of wines from the Tricastin area. Acting on the wishes of the wine growers to change the name of the appellation to something without "Tricastin", to avoid being associated with the nuclear power plant, in June 2010, INAO signalled its intention to allow a name change from Coteaux du Tricastin AOC to ''Grignan-Les Adhemar'' effective from the 2010 vintage.

EPR project

On 15 February 2007 the

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, ) is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with '' La Libre Belgique'', it is one of the most popular Francophone newsp ...

newspaper announced that

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

was considering building a new European Pressurized Reactor at the Tricastin site, but the claim was denied by the SUEZ group.

Naming

The Tricastin region where the plant is located, is named after the ancient Ligurian tribe the ''Tricastini''. Their capital ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' was mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

in his ''Natural History'' book III in 74 C.E.

Photo gallery

Image:Eurodif.JPG, The

cooling tower 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 the ...

s of Eurodif Image:Tourcondensation.JPG, A single cooling tower Image:Site nucléaire Tricastin.jpg, Aerial view

References

{{Nuclear power in France Nuclear power stations in France Civilian nuclear power accidents