Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant

The Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant is located in the Fessenheim commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, north east of the Mulhouse urban area, within of the border with Germany, and approximately from Switzerland. Unit 1 was closed in February 2020 and unit 2 on 29 June 2020.

Description

The Fessenheim plant has two pressurized water reactors, which each generated 920 MWe. Construction at Fessenheim began in 1970 and the plant was commissioned in 1977. Autorité de sûreté nucléaire, accessed 2009-05-17 It is built alongside the Grand Canal d'Alsace, a canal channelling the Upper Rhine river, from which it drew of cooling water annually.

The plant employed around 700 staff and 200 contractors, and indirectly supports a further 600 to 2,000 people during maintenance operations. The plant contributed around 16,000,000 euro in tax to the various local authorities, including providing the commune of Fessenheim with 70% of its revenue.

In October 2009 the plant's third 10-yearly inspection on reactor 1 began, in advance of a decision on whether the plant could continue to operate for a further decade.Aire Urbaine , La centrale de Fessenheim est-elle à l’abri d’un accident majeur ?
Le Pays, 2011-03-15, accessed 2011-04-13 A full decision was made in 2011, with permission to operate reactor 1 given. Reactor 1 was permanently shut down on February 22, 2020. The second reactor was inspected in mid April 2011. The local Information and Oversight Commission asked GSIEN to conduct a parallel independent inspection alongside the official inspection by the Nuclear Safety Authority.GSIEN – Groupement des scientifiques pour l'information sur l'énergie nucléaire
Réseau national de mesures de la radioactivité de l'environnement, accessed 2011-04-11 Reactor 2 shut down on 29 June 2020.

Technical data

Selected incidents and accidents

* On April 9, 2014, a tank on the non-nuclear equipment cooling system was accidentally overfilled due to incorrect level indicators. As the overflow drain pipe on this tank was blocked near ground level and could not drain the overflow water as designed, the overflowing water from this tank backed up through multiple other pipes and eventually began overflowing into a room next to Unit 1's control room. The failure of several supposedly water-tight seals between floors allowed the leaking water to descend into lower levels, eventually encountering and shorting out electrical equipment used for some of the nuclear control systems. One of the two redundant reactor protection system trains became unavailable due to the water damage, and the reactor control rod visual position indicators were totally disabled. Although by this point the water leak had already been stopped, the loss of the reactor control rod visual position indicators meant that the reactor could not be shut down via normal control rod operation, and would need to be shut down through an alternate system (either via an uncontrolled emergency drop of the safety shutdown rods or by utilizing the boron injection system). The operators on duty chose to slowly bring the reactor to a normal shutdown via the use of the boron injection system (which was permitted under normal operation rules), and the reactor reached a "maintenance cold shutdown" state on April 11, 2014. This event was rated at 'level 1' on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Following the repair, testing, and recertification of all damaged equipment, Unit 1 was subsequently reconnected to the grid on May 28, 2014.
* On September 5, 2012, two employees were mildly injured by a steam release caused by a minor chemical accident which also triggered fire alarms at the plant.
* On April 10, 2011, operator error led to one of the reactors automatically shutting down. The incident had no further consequences and was rated at 'level 1' on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).
* On December 27, 2009, a 'level 1' incident on the INES occurred when plant matter was drawn into the Essential Service Water System intake, reducing the flow rate, although the flow remained sufficient to avoid endangering the security of the plant.
* On January 24, 2004, the water in the primary circuit water of Unit 1 was contaminated by radioactive resin from a system used to filter out boron, quickly blocking several filters and endangering the integrity of the joints on the pumps.Incident à la centrale de Fessenheim
IRSN, published 2004-02-10 accessed 2011-03-30Tranche 1 De La Centrale Nucleaire De Fessenheim Incidents De Janvier 2004
''Stop Transports'', accessed 2011-03-30 Seven EDF employees inhaled radioactive dust during the replacement of the filters, and another was slightly irradiated during the clean-up the following month. The incident was categorised at 'level 1' on the INES.

Risks

Due to its location, the Fessenheim plant is subject to particular risks from seismic activity and flooding, and there is an ongoing debate about the adequacy of its design in these respects.

Seismicity

The majority of the Haut-Rhin ''département'', including Fessenheim, is classified as being in a zone of moderate seismicity; the southern third is in a medium-risk zone.Quatre centrales sur une zone sismique
''Les quatre éléments'' published 2011-03-15, accessed 2011-04-13 The most recent earthquake in this zone, with a magnitude of 3.9, took place on Saturday, 10 September 2022, 1.2km from Flaxlanden (epicenter 47.693°N 7.359°E with a 8.9 km depth). Previously an earthquake of magnitude 4.7, was recorded in this southern third at Sierentz in July 1980. The last major earthquake in the region was the 1356 Basel earthquake

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