Country France Commission date 12 June 1981 Reactor type PWR Construction began 1976 | Location Blaye Operator(s) EDF Phone +33 5 57 33 33 33 | |
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Official name Centrale nucléaire du Blayais Address Braud-et-Saint-Louis, 33820 Saint-Ciers-sur-Gironde, France Similar Centre Equestre du Blayais, camping de la sauzelle, Sud Ouest, Mairie de Braud et Saint Louis, Camping Chez Gendron | ||
The Blayais Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear plant on the banks of the Gironde estuary near Blaye, South Western France operated by Électricité de France.
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Description
The power plant has 4 pressurized water reactors – producing 951 MW each. They were commissioned from 1981 to 1983. The plant has 1200 EDF employees and 350 permanent workers.
The four reactors produce about 27 TWh per year which totals to 1.5 times more than the electricity needs of the Aquitaine region. Since its commissioning, the Blayais nuclear power plant has produced more than 500 TWh, the equivalent of the French electricity production in one year.
In its 2007 annual report, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) finds overall safety of the power plant as satisfactory but finds that the organization put in place to manage emergencies is robust and the site must be more rigorous in the preparation of interventions.
2002 earthquake
In 2002 and 2003, EDF reported two level 1 incidents on the INES scale about the seismic resilience of the plant.
The incident reported on the 14 October 2002 earthquake advised the keeping of water reservoirs to ensure the cooling of the core in case of accident. The work required to bring the plant into compliance was completed in December 2005.
The incident on 28 October 2003 reported seismic behavior of piping connected to a tank of water affected by the incident of 14 October 2002.
1999 flooding
On the evening of 27 December 1999, a combination of the incoming tide and high winds overwhelmed the sea walls at the plant and causing parts of the plant to be flooded. The event resulted in the loss of the plant's off-site power supply and knocked out several safety-related backup systems, resulting in a 'level 2' event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
At the time, units 1, 2 and 4 were at full power, while unit 3 was shut down for refuelling. The operation of units 1 and 2 were affected by flood damage to a number of water pumps and distribution panels, all four units lost their 225 kV power supplies, while units 2 and 4 also lost their 400 kV power supplies. Diesel backup generators were employed to maintain power to plants 2 and 4 until the 400 kV supply was restored. Over the following days an estimated 90,000 m3 (3,200,000 cu ft) of water was pumped out of the flooded buildings.
On 5 January, the regional newspaper Sud-Ouest ran the following headline without being contradicted:Very close to a major accident, explaining that a catastrophe had been narrowly avoided.
The flooding resulted in fundamental changes to the evaluation of flood risk at nuclear power plants, and in the precautions taken.
In Germany the flooding prompted the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety to order an evaluation of the German nuclear power plants.
Opposition
The continued operation of the Blayais plant is opposed by the local anti-nuclear group 'TchernoBlaye' (a portmanteau of the French spelling of Chernobyl and Blaye, the nearest town), formed by Stéphane Lhomme on 15 December 1999.