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France's Oldest Nuclear Plant To Close This Year (phys.org)
mdsolar writes: France is to close down its oldest nuclear power plant, at the center of a row with neighboring Germany and Switzerland, by the end of this year, a green minister said Sunday. "The timeline is one the president has repeated to me several times, it's 2016," said Emmanuelle Cosse, who was named to President Francois Hollande's cabinet last month, referring to the Fessenheim plant. Cosse was speaking to French media after a row sparked Friday when Germany demanded that France close down Fessenheim following reports that a 2014 incident there was worse than earlier portrayed. France's Nuclear Safety Agency said that safety at the plant was "overall satisfactory" but that the government's energy policy "could lead to different choices" regarding the facility, which is near the German and Swiss borders. It said there was "no need" to shut the plant from a nuclear safety point of view. France has promised to cut reliance on nuclear energy from more than 75 percent to 50 percent by shutting 24 reactors by 2025, while stepping up reliance on renewable energy.
https://www.google.de/maps/@47.9078423,7.5711826,14.75z
Distance from Germany is measured rather in meter than kilometer. With prevailing winds from the west.
About the pollution: Currently none that is made public by French authorities. What became public, however, is that a bit ago, they kept under all blankets that the reactor was out of control (control rod control and sensors were down due to water entering the elctronics) and a manual emergency shutdown with borate flooding had to be performed.
It's debatable if it was technically "out of control" as long as they were able to do an emergency shutdown, but it's gross negliance and irresponsible if an emergency shutdown is NOT reported as an incident.
Add this to the bad overall situation after 40 years of operation, microscopic fractures in the reactor vessel and the plant having more "incidents" than 3 year old after a soda spree....
This is a dirty bomb waiting to happen.
bickerdyke
This is utter nonsense and the many regular visits from Germans and French in their respective partner towns and cities tell a different stories. True there is prejudice on both sides of the border. For example, that Germans can't cook (which is only true for North Germans ;-)) and the French want to control every joint company and endeavour (which is so true, especially with Airbus Group where the CEO is Tom Enders, oh wait he is German, but then it must be true in all other cases). And yes, there is a feeling in Germany that the French want to dominate and there is a feeling in France that France cannot really compete. In the end this is rubbish. However, Hollande is not really a visionary President nor was it Sarkozi. And the same applies to Schröder and now Merkel. However, Merkel might have done a step in the right direction lately. Anyway, I am much more optimistic about the German-French relations.
France made a clear choice decades ago, has stuck with it, enjoys low costs as a result of standardization, and is not about to change. France has no oil and little coal, so the French Greens have never received that fountain of money from the fossil fuel lobby that their counterparts in so many other countries benefit from.
That "reduce nuclear power to 50%" campaign plank of Hollande's will be forgotten about as soon as Le Pen takes office.
Well, I live 7 km from the border and it is amazing how little contact there really is across the Rhine. Might have to do with the fact that the main train bridge was blown up at the end of WWII and is STILL not operational.
The only place around here where French and Germans mingle a lot and work together is in Basel, in Switzerland, right at the point where the 3 countries meet.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism