Civaux nuclear power plant

Civaux nuclear power plant
Civaux nuclear power plant
location
Coordinates	46 ° 27 '22 "  N , 0 ° 39' 15"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 27 '22 "  N , 0 ° 39' 15"  E
Country:	France
Data
Owner:	EDF
Operator:	EDF
Project start:	Oct 1, 1988
Commercial operation:	Dec 24, 1997
Active reactors (gross):	2 (3,122 MW)
Energy fed in in 2018:	19,506 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning:	362,330 GWh
Website:	Side of the operator
Was standing:	1st January 2019
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .

The nuclear power plant Civaux is located in the French city of Civaux in Vienne, in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine . It has two pressurized water reactors of the type N4 and is located 34 kilometers southeast of Poitiers on the left bank of the Vienne , a tributary of the Loire . The operator is the French company Électricité de France (EDF).

Key data

Around 700 people are employed in the 220  hectare nuclear power plant area. The reactor blocks are cooled with two cooling towers and the water taken from the Vienne.

Aerial view of the nuclear power plant

The two pressurized water reactors of the type N4 provided the basis for the development of the EPR . The reactors were to the year 2018 with a net capacity of each 1,495  megawatts (MW) and a gross capacity of 1,561 MW, the most powerful reactors in the world. The total installed capacity is 3122 MW, making the nuclear power plant one of the medium-sized ones in France. The power plant feeds an average of 18 billion kilowatt hours into the public power grid every year .

The two cooling towers of the nuclear power plant are 180 meters high, making them the highest in France.

Construction of the first reactor block began on October 1, 1988; it went into operation on December 24, 1997. Construction of the second reactor block began on April 30, 1991 and was completed on December 24, 1999. Unit 1 became critical for the first time on November 29, 1997 , and Unit 2 on November 27, 1999. The shutdown of the reactors is planned for 2037 and 2039 .

safety

Entry area of ​​the nuclear power plant

On May 12, 1998, a nuclear incident occurred in which a crack 18 centimeters long and 2.5 centimeters wide appeared in a cooling circuit of the first reactor. According to the authorities, 30 m³ of water per hour leaked through this crack  . The leak could only be located after almost 10 hours and the leaky water circuit shut off. Cooling until the leak was repaired could be ensured with the second water circuit. The incident has been classified by the French nuclear regulatory authority ASN with level 2 on the International Rating Scale for Nuclear Events (INES).

On October 18, 2016, the ASN announced that within three months, EDF had to perform an unscheduled check of the functionality of steam generators on five nuclear reactors that were currently running, one of these five was reactor I in Civaux.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Civaux nuclear power plant has two blocks :

Reactor block	Reactor type	net power	gross power	start of building	Network synchronization	Commercialization of essential operation	switching off processing
Civaux-1	Pressurized water reactor	1495 MW	1561 MW	October 15, 1988	12/24/1997	01/29/2002	(Planned for 2037)
Civaux-2	Pressurized water reactor	1495 MW	1561 MW	04/01/1991	12/24/1999	04/23/2002	(Planned for 2039)

Passenger transportation

Starting in April 2016, six fully autonomous electric shuttle buses from the manufacturer Navya will be used for the first time for passenger transport on the 220 hectare site of the power plant, on which up to 1100 people work . It is operated in partnership with the operator Transdev and replaces traditional diesel buses.

See also

• List of nuclear power plants
• List of nuclear facilities in France
• List of the most powerful nuclear reactors
• List of nuclear reactors with the highest annual production

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "France (French Republic): Nuclear Power Reactors" (English)
2. ↑ fault in phase A . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 1998, pp. 264-266 ( online - 28 September 1998 ).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Individual decision by the ASN to have tests carried out on the steam generators of certain reactors. October 18, 2016, archived from the original on October 19, 2016 ; accessed on January 1, 2020 (French). 
4. ↑ ASN stipulation that EDF must check the steam generators at five power plants within three months due to material defects. In: ASN press release. October 18, 2016, accessed January 1, 2020 (French). 
5. ↑ Doubts about components: France shuts down five nuclear reactors. In: FAZ online. October 19, 2016, accessed January 1, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Operating data of block CIVAUX-1. In: IAEA - PRIS. Retrieved January 11, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Operating data of block CIVAUX-2. In: IAEA - PRIS. Retrieved January 11, 2020 . 
8. ↑ partnership Navya - TRANSDEV: Commissioning of an autonomous fleet in the nuclear power plant Civaux EDF. Press release Navya. April 21, 2016, archived from the original on October 17, 2016 ; accessed on January 11, 2020 (French). 

Web links

Commons : Civaux nuclear power station  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Civaux, a latest generation power plant. In: EDF, Infos Nucleaire. 2006, archived from the original on August 21, 2007 ; accessed on January 1, 2020 (French). 
• Stop Civaux - citizens' initiative against the nuclear power plant (French)