UNGG reactor

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The two UNGG reactors in the Saint-Laurent nuclear power plant
A detached section of a fuel cartridge from the UNGG Bugey-1 reactor, the cooling channel inside visible
Chinon nuclear power plant with three UNGG reactors

Nuclear reactors of the series UNGG ( French Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz 'Natururan Graphit Gas') were built in France and Spain . The gas-cooled reactors program in France originally consisted of eight of the first-generation gas-cooled and graphite-moderated reactors operated with natural uranium . They are all switched off now. All eight reactors together had a net output of 2375  MWe and were in operation for 163 years.

The natural uranium reactors use graphite as a moderator and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) under pressure as a coolant. In the French reactors, the reactor core consisted of a stack of graphite bricks in a hexagonal shape. A canal ran through each brick. In each of these channels, fuel was housed in the form of cassettes in which gas was circulated.

The French experience with the operation of gas-cooled reactors began in 1959 with the commissioning of the G2 reactor at the Marcoule nuclear power plant .

The reactor type was jointly developed by the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) and Électricité de France (EDF). The first UNGG reactor, the G1 in Marcoule, was commissioned in 1956. The last, Bugey 1, followed in 1972.

In both France and Spain, the worst accidents in the history of the country occurred in one UNGG reactor. In France occurred on 17 October 1969, on March 13, 1980 accidents (INES 4) in the reactors in Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant , which involve partial core meltdown came, October 19, 1989 occurred in the reactor in Vandellòs one serious incident in which the block was irreparably damaged, after which it had to be shut down.

At the end of the 1960s, the EDF decided to forego the UNGG series and only to build pressurized water reactors from that point on.

To decommission the UNGG reactors in Chinon, Bugey and Saint-Laurent, the EDF chose partial or permanent dismantling, which has been ongoing since the decommissioning. In France, a recycling plant for steel from dismantled nuclear facilities is under construction in Marcoule . This metal is likely to be radioactively contaminated but can be recycled for other nuclear power plants .

Locations

UNGG reactors were in operation at the following nuclear power plant locations (number of units):

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Acronyms - UNGG (English)
  2. ^ A b Mary Byrd Davis: THE SIX NUCLEAR MATERIALS> Uranium. In: La France nucleaire. Archived from the original on January 6, 2009 ; accessed on December 28, 2019 (English).
  3. ↑ Conference Article: French activities on gas cooled reactors. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008 ; accessed on September 7, 2008 (English).
  4. ↑ Conference Article: Twenty-nine years of French experience in operating gas-cooled reactors. Archived from the original on January 16, 2005 ; accessed on September 7, 2008 (English).
  5. ^ Mary Byrd Davis: THE URANIUM-PLUTONIUM CHAIN> Types of Reactors. In: La France nucleaire. Archived from the original on December 9, 2008 ; accessed on December 28, 2019 (English).
  6. ^ Federation of American Scientists: Le Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) and its role. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
  7. ^ World Nuclear Association: Decommissioning Nuclear Facilities. October 2019, accessed on December 28, 2019 .