France Investigating Mysterious Drone Activity Over 7 Nuclear Power Plant Sites

thygate writes In France, an investigation has been launched into the appearance of "drones" on 7 different nuclear power plant sites across the country in the last month. Some of the plants involved are Creys-Malville en Bugey in the southeast, Blayais in the southwest, Cattenom en Chooz in the northeast, Gravelines in the north, and Nogent-sur-Seine, close to Paris. It is forbidden to fly over these sites on altitudes less than 1 km in a 5 km radius. According to a spokesman of the state electric company that runs the facilities (EDF), there was no danger to the security and production of the plants. However these incidents will likely bring nuclear safety concerns back into the spotlight.

Comments

Re:Have they checked up on the Swiss Green Party?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the Green Party, just one guy who later became a Green politician

Re:Unless the plant is surrounded in a glass dome.

[rogueippacket]

That doesn't sound remotely true. Most of the important equipment (HVAC, Power, Connectivity) is made of iron and steel and sits behind concrete walls (or underground in the case of fiber), separated either by large distances or placed at opposite ends of the same buildings. So unless you have full building access to walk around and stick explosives inside conduits, raceways, fuel tanks, and generator housings (which you won't if it's a Tier 4 datacenter), there's no way lobbing a few grenades from the parking lot will do anything but force a controlled shutdown of some systems for emergency repairs.
Fun fact, even a datacenter in the middle of a desert can cool every piece of equipment inside via a process known as evaporative cooling; using a heat exchanger connected to an underground water tank or adequate commercial supply, the differential in humidity inside causes heat to be evaporated in the desert sun.

Re:Surrender!

[Half-pint HAL]

Why do people mod this racist rubbish as "funny"? France surrendered in WWII... yes. Because their towns were being obliterated by the Nazi war machine and they didn't have the strength to fight back, as the Allies had been forced to withdraw their ground troops via Dunkirk to prevent complete and unequivocal defeat. They didn't surrender without a fight.