France shuts down nuclear reactors in heatwave precaution

PARIS: France’s main energy provider Thursday shut down two nuclear reactors as an environmental protection measure to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming in a record-breaking heatwave.

Power plants critical to the country’s electricity production use river water to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into the river.

The EDF energy group on Thursday said it had temporarily shut down two reactors to comply with temperature limits of the rivers at the Nogent-sur-Seine power plant on the Seine river in northern France and in Bugey on the Rhone near the southeastern city of Lyon.

The Nogent-sur-Seine plant had already reduced production in another reactor days earlier “to limit the temperature increase between the water withdrawn from the Seine and the water discharged back into it, thereby protecting aquatic plant and animal life”.

Production halts and reductions at France’s 57 reactors are intended to meet environmental obligations designed to protect plant and animal life in the waterways used to cool nuclear facilities.

During heatwaves, rising river temperatures can force EDF to reduce or even cut production so as not to warm them further with discharges of cooling water, which is anywhere from a few tenths of a degree to several degrees warmer, depending on the site.

France has been hit hard by a deadly record-breaking heatwave sweeping Europe.

EDF had already shut down a reactor at the Golfech plant in southwestern France on the Garonne river on Monday and has reduced output at other sites.

Nuclear power stations produced almost 70% of France’s electricity last year.

French grid operator RTE told AFP on Wednesday that “France has sufficient generation capacity to meet electricity demand, including in the event of outages at certain production facilities”.