pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) i ...

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Donzère-Mondragon Dam and the commune

Pierrelatte Pierrelatte (; oc, Pèiralata) is a Communes of France, commune in the Drôme Departments of France, department in southeastern France. Since the 1980s it hosts one of the biggest production plants of the enriched uranium existing in the world, u ...

. The power plant is part of the widespread Tricastin Nuclear Site (see below), which was named after the historic

Tricastin The Tricastin is a natural and historic region in the southern Rhône valley of southeastern France comprising the southwestern portion of the Drôme department and the northwestern portion of Vaucluse and centered on the modern town of Saint-P ...

region. Three out of the four reactors on the site had been used until 2012 to power the

Eurodif Eurodif, which means ''European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium'', is a subsidiary of the French company Orano, which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drô ...

Uranium enrichment plant, which had been located on the site.

Tricastin Nuclear Site

The Tricastin Nuclear Site (Site Nucléaire du Tricastin) is a collection of facilities run by Areva and EDF located on right bank of the Channel of Donzère-Mondragon (diversion canal of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

River) south of the city of Valence (70 km upstream) and north of Avignon (65 km downstream). The site straddles the border between the departments

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

(26) and

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Gard (30) and Ardèche (07) departments, and lies near the communes of

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (; oc, label= Vivaro-Alpine, Sant Pau de Tricastin), sometimes known as -en-Tricastin, is a commune, an administrative region, in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Name The settlement is attested as ''Aug ...

,

Pierrelatte Pierrelatte (; oc, Pèiralata) is a Communes of France, commune in the Drôme Departments of France, department in southeastern France. Since the 1980s it hosts one of the biggest production plants of the enriched uranium existing in the world, u ...

(both Drôme department),

Bollène Bollène (; Provençal: ''Bouleno'') is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography Bollène is a commune located in the north of the Vaucluse department next to the juncti ...

and

Lapalud Lapalud (; oc, La Palús) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. People from Lapalud * Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907), founder of the Académie Julian * Alain Borne (1915–1 ...

(both Vaucluse Department). Tricastin is one of the most important nuclear technology sites in the world, along with the

COGEMA La Hague site The La Hague site is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula in northern France, with the Manche storage centre bordering on it. Operated by Orano, formerly AREVA, and prior to that COGEMA (''Compagnie général ...

. It is spread out over 600 hectares with over 5000 employees. Some of the involved companies are: *

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission or CEA (French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and securit ...

(CEA) de Pierrelatte (A

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s research facility) * The EDF Nuclear Power Plant Tricastin (3,660 MWe total 915 MWe each) * Comurhex: A

Uranium hexafluoride Uranium hexafluoride (), (sometimes called "hex") is an inorganic compound with the formula UF6. Uranium hexafluoride is a volatile white solid that reacts with water, releasing corrosive hydrofluoric acid. The compound reacts mildly with alumin ...

conversion facility *

Eurodif Eurodif, which means ''European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium'', is a subsidiary of the French company Orano, which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drô ...

:

Georges Besse Georges Besse (25 December 1927 – 17 November 1986) was a French businessman who led several large state-controlled French companies. He was assassinated outside his Paris home by the terrorist group Action directe. At the time of his death he ...

(II) plant for

gaseous diffusion Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) through semipermeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 (235U) and uranium-2 ...

uranium enrichment, which operated from 1979 to 2012 A small number of facilities in Pierrelatte belong to the

Marcoule Nuclear Site Marcoule Nuclear Site (french: Site nucléaire de Marcoule) is a nuclear facility in the Chusclan and Codolet Commune of France, communes, near Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard French Department, department of France, which is in the tourist, wine an ...

.

Nuclear power plant

The site houses 4

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) i ...

s (PWR) of 915 MW each, which were built mostly in the 1970s and brought online in the early 80s. These reactors produce about 25 TWh/year, or 6% of France's electricity. Three out of four reactors were used for powering the

Eurodif Eurodif, which means ''European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium'', is a subsidiary of the French company Orano, which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drô ...

Uranium enrichment Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...

factory until 2012, the year that Eurodif was closed. The close proximity of the power source and usage of the power allowed for smaller transmission losses to occur, which was done at 225 kV. The replacement of the Eurodif gas-diffusion plant by the new SET gas-centrifuge plant (also located at the Tricastin site) reduced the energy consumption of the uranium enrichment process by a factor of 50, freeing up approximately 2700 MWe for the French national grid. Spent fuel is transported by train to the reprocessing plant, just as the new fuel is transported to the plant by train.

Safety

Fire response

Tests on 2 July 2004 by the

Autorité de sûreté nucléaire The ''Autorité de sûreté nucléaire'' ( en, Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN) is an independent French administrative authority set up by law 2006-686 of 13 June 2006 concerning nuclear transparency and security. It has replaced the General Direct ...

(Nuclear Safety Authority) found that it would take 37 minutes to respond to a fire.

Flood

In its initial report following the

1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood The 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood was a flood that took place on the evening of December 27, 1999. It was caused when a combination of the tide and high winds from the extratropical storm Martin led to the seawalls of the Blayais Nucle ...

, the Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety (now part of the Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute) called for the risk of flooding at Tricastin to be re-examined due to the presence of the canal.Rapport sur l'inondation du site du Blayais survenue le 27 décembre 1999
Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety, published 17 January 2000. Retrieved 21 March 2011 From 27 September 2017 to December 2017 the reactors were temporary shutdown while repairs to the canal embankment were made. The regulator

Autorité de sûreté nucléaire The ''Autorité de sûreté nucléaire'' ( en, Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN) is an independent French administrative authority set up by law 2006-686 of 13 June 2006 concerning nuclear transparency and security. It has replaced the General Direct ...

(ASN) had ordered the temporary shutdown because of the risk of embankment failure in the event of an earthquake.

Cooling water

During the 2003 European heat wave from 12 to 22 July, the maximum temperature of 27 °C from the piping of

waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...

water into the canal was exceeded on several occasions, totalling about 44 hours.

Incidents

In July 2008, 18,000 litres (4,755 gallons) of uranium solution containing natural uranium were accidentally released on the Tricastin Nuclear Site. Due to cleaning and repair work the containment system for a uranium solution holding tank was not functional when the tank filled. The inflow exceeded the tank's capacity and 30 cubic metres of uranium solution leaked with 18 cubic metres spilled to the ground. Testing found elevated uranium levels in the nearby rivers Gaffière and Lauzon. The liquid that escaped to the ground contained about 75 kg of unenriched uranium which is toxic as a heavy metal while possessing only slight radioactivity. Estimates for the releases were initially higher, up to 360 kg of natural uranium, but lowered later. Ground and surface water tests indicated that levels of radioactivity were 5% higher than the maximum rate allowed. In the near vicinity and above ground, the local watchdog group CRIIRAD has detected unusually high levels of radiation. French authorities banned the use of water from the Gaffière and Lauzon for drinking and watering of crops. Swimming, water sports and fishing were also banned. This incident has been classified as Level 1 on the

International Nuclear Event Scale The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents. The ...

. In July 2008, approximately 100 employees were exposed to radioactive particles that escaped from a pipe in a reactor that had been shut down. Additionally, a nuclear waste leak that apparently had remained undiscovered since 2005 spilled into a concrete protective shell in Romans-sur-Isere. Areva, who owns the site, ensured that the leak had not caused harm to the environment, but the issue sparked discussion about an old French army terrain, where nuclear waste was deposited in shielded dumps. The layer of dirt covering the waste is reported to have been thinned due to wind and rain erosion, directly exposing nuclear waste material to open air. Also, the speed with which the Tricastin incident was reported to the

Autorité de sûreté nucléaire The ''Autorité de sûreté nucléaire'' ( en, Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN) is an independent French administrative authority set up by law 2006-686 of 13 June 2006 concerning nuclear transparency and security. It has replaced the General Direct ...

(8 hours) and subsequently to local authorities (another 6 hours) is subject of ongoing discussions. The European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs may send inspectors to the sites to investigate recent events further. Other implications following the incidents resulted in a drop in the sale of wines from the Tricastin area. Acting on the wishes of the wine growers to change the name of the appellation to something without "Tricastin", to avoid being associated with the nuclear power plant, in June 2010, INAO signalled its intention to allow a name change from

Coteaux du Tricastin AOC The Grignan-Les Adhemar AOC (formerly the Côteaux du Tricastin) is the northernmost wine-growing AOC in the southern area of the Rhône wine region of France. The wines are produced in 21 communes in the department of Drôme on the east bank of t ...

to ''Grignan-Les Adhemar'' effective from the 2010 vintage.

EPR project

On 15 February 2007 the

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

newspaper announced that

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

was considering building a new European Pressurized Reactor at the Tricastin site, but the claim was denied by the SUEZ group.

Naming

The

Tricastin The Tricastin is a natural and historic region in the southern Rhône valley of southeastern France comprising the southwestern portion of the Drôme department and the northwestern portion of Vaucluse and centered on the modern town of Saint-P ...

region where the plant is located, is named after the ancient Ligurian tribe the ''Tricastini''. Their capital ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' was mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

in his ''Natural History'' book III in 74 C.E.

Photo gallery

Image:Eurodif.JPG, The

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...

s of

Eurodif Eurodif, which means ''European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium'', is a subsidiary of the French company Orano, which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drô ...

Image:Tourcondensation.JPG, A single cooling tower Image:Site nucléaire Tricastin.jpg, Aerial view

References

{{Nuclear power in France Nuclear power stations in France Civilian nuclear power accidents