Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant

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Country
  
France

Status
  
Operational

Make and model
  
Alstom

Operator
  
Électricité de France

Location
  
Avoine, Indre-et-Loire

Reactor type
  
PWR

Construction began
  
1957

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Official name
  
Centrale Nucléaire de Chinon

Commission date
  
February 1, 1964 (February 1, 1964)

The Chinon Nuclear Power Plant (French: Centrale nucléaire de Chinon) is near the town of Avoine in the French Indre et Loire département, on the Loire river (approximately 10 km from the town of Chinon). The power station has seven reactors, of which three are now closed.

Contents

The nuclear power station employs approximately 1,350 full-time workers. The operator is the French company Électricité de France (EDF).

PerformanceEdit

The site housed three of the first generation of French plants, which were of UNGG-type (similar to the Magnox design). Since then, four of the first French PWR series have been built. The site uses four cooling towers that were built with a low profile for the specific purpose of not blocking the views of the Loire.

The plant is on the large side for a French plant. It feeds approximately 6% of the national electricity demand of France.

EventsEdit

  • 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 December 21, 2005, sand accumulated inside the tertiary cooling circuit, threatening to block it. This could have stopped cooling of all the reactors.
  • On September 4, 2008, some industrial oil was accidentally discharged to the river in a maintenance operation. It was not radioactively contaminated.
  • On April 30, 2009, a bomb alert caused an evacuation of the plant and an intervention by several units of army security forces

    • Other infoEdit

  • Since 1986, the closed Chinon A1 reactor has been redeveloped to hold the French Atom Museum.
  • The INTRA (INTervention Robotic on Accidents) group, a nuclear event emergency intervention group equipped with remotely guided, radiation hardened machinery, has its headquarters on the plant's areal

    • References

    Chinon Nuclear Power Plant Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA