Saint-Laurent nuclear power plant

Saint-Laurent nuclear power plant
Saint-Laurent nuclear power plant
location
Coordinates	47 ° 43 '14 "  N , 1 ° 34' 43"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 43 '14 "  N , 1 ° 34' 43"  E
Country:	France
Data
Owner:	EDF
Operator:	EDF
Project start:	1963
Commercial operation:	March 24, 1969
Active reactors (gross):	2 (1912 MW)
Decommissioned reactors (gross):	2 (1030 MW)
Energy fed in in 2006:	12,918 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning:	363,287 GWh
Was standing:	July 22, 2007
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .

The Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant ( French Centrale nucléaire de Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux ) is located in the French commune of Saint-Laurent-Nouan in the Region Center-Val de Loire in the Loir-et-Cher . The nuclear power plant , which consists of two pressurized water reactors and two UNGG reactors , which were closed in 1990 and 1992 respectively , is located about 30 kilometers from Orléans on the left bank of the Loire .

Key data

The nuclear power plant is operated by the French company Électricité de France (EDF). It employs around 670 people. The reactor blocks are cooled with two cooling towers and the water taken from the Loire .

The two pressurized water reactors still in operation have a net capacity of each 915  megawatts (MW) and a gross capacity of 956 MW. The two disused UNGG reactors had a net power of 480 and 515  megawatts (MW) and a gross power of 500 and 530 MW. The total output of the two pressurized water reactors is 1830 MW (gross 1912 MW); this makes the nuclear power plant one of the smaller in France. Every year it feeds an average of 12 billion kilowatt hours into the public power grid ; this corresponds to around 75 percent of the annual electricity consumption of the Center region.

Construction of the first UNGG reactor block began on October 1, 1963; it went into operation on March 24, 1969. The second UNGG reactor block went into operation on October 9, 1971. The two were shut down in 1990 and 1992, respectively. The construction of the two newer pressurized water reactors began in 1976 and went into operation in 1981. The shutdown of these reactors is planned for 2023 .

Incidents, partial meltdowns

Two partial core melts occurred in the Saint-Laurent nuclear power plant in 1969 and 1980:

On October 17, 1969, the reactor core was damaged while the graphite reactor A1 was being loaded. The cooling of a fuel element was interrupted, which then melted. 50 kg of uranium leaked out. Only the site ( le site ) was contaminated ; the population was not informed. In 1969 this accident of level 4 on the INES scale was declared as an 'incident' by the EdF.

On March 13, 1980, a fuel element melted in the other UNGG reactor A2 . The damage resulted in contamination of the building. The reactor was then unavailable for the next two and a half years. This accident has been classified by the French nuclear regulatory authority ASN on the International Rating Scale for Nuclear Incidents (INES) with level 4.

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  The two shutdown UNGG reactors

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  The two shutdown UNGG reactors

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  The nuclear power plant

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  The nuclear power plant

Data of the reactor blocks

The Saint Laurent nuclear power plant has a total of four blocks :

Reactor block	Reactor type	net power	gross power	start of building	Network synchronization	Commercialization of essential operation	switching off processing
Saint Laurent A1	UNGG reactor	480 MW	500 MW	10/01/1963	03/14/1969	06/01/1969	April 18, 1990
Saint Laurent A2	UNGG reactor	515 MW	530 MW	01/01/1966	08/09/1971	11/01/1971	05/27/1992
Saint Laurent B1	Pressurized water reactor	915 MW	956 MW	05/01/1976	01/21/1981	08/01/1983	(Planned for 2023)
Saint Laurent B2	Pressurized water reactor	915 MW	956 MW	07/01/1976	06/01/1981	08/01/1983	(Planned for 2023)

See also

• List of nuclear facilities in France
• List of nuclear power plants

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "France (French Republic): Nuclear Power Reactors" (English)
2. ↑ https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/le-jour-ou-la-france-a-frole-le-pire-22-03-2011-1316269_23.php
3. ↑ https://kernenergie.technology/nukleare-unfalle
4. ^ INES - The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. (pdf; 193 kB) International Atomic Energy Agency , August 1, 2008, p. 2 , accessed on March 14, 2011 (English). 

Web links

Commons : Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The nuclear power plant on the side of the operator