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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.
The French have big problems with nuclear power at the moment. The biggest company running their nuclear fleet, EDF, is in serious trouble. It has plants being built in other European countries that are way, way over budget, and is now looking likely to back out of building the two new reactors at Hinkley Point in the UK.
The basic problem is cost. EDF has a number of old reactors that need decommissioning and replacing. The new reactors are turning out to be extremely expensive. The pair in the UK are projected to cost £18bn ($26bn) but the identical ones they already started on are approximately 3x over budget and massively delayed.
So EDF is faced with massive costs from old reactors and a need to borrow massive amounts of money to build the new ones. Even the guarantee from the UK government to pay way, way over the odds for the electricity generated isn't enough any more. The French government was trying to reduce it's stake in EDF, but has recently had to switch to buying up shares again just to keep the lights on.
On top of all that, their neighbours are building a lot of renewable energy that really pushes prices down. Peak pricing used to be a massive earner for EDF, but now Germany is exporting extremely cheap energy during those times. EDF doesn't want to adapt, can't really adapt because all its cash is tied up in failing nuclear projects.
They should have fixed the roof while the sun was shining, and installed some solar panels at the same time.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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
France's oldest nuclear plant is Brennilis. It ran from 1967 to 1985. It is still not fully decommissioned, this work being more complex and more expensive than foreseen...
And there is also Superphénix, running from 1986 to 1996 and far more complex to dismantle, because of plutonium and sodium.
They will not build a new one. First, Germany is super annoyed that they withheld information on an accident in the plant, as Germany would directly suffer from the consequences if the plant goes Fukushima. Second, EDF tries to build a new nuclear plant in the UK (Hinkley Point C). Their government is totally behind it. Unfortunately, the EDF finance director resigned as he sees the plant to be a economic disaster (the union also think it is stupid and will cost jobs) http://www.theguardian.com/env...
Therefore, it is not very plausible that they will build a new reactor anywhere.
Sorry, associative error. I meant Boron, and to be more correct I refer to boronic acid. In German Boron is called Bor (and so it was substituted by Bohr).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Low cost? France's nuclear obsession has cost it dearly. EDF has run out of cash and can't even afford its current decommissioning and new plant contracts. The government is fed up of subsidising them.
Don't mistake low kWh prices for cheap energy. France pays for it through the massive subsidy that its nuclear industry has enjoyed. The idea was that it would become profitable and not need continuing subsidy, but the plan has failed utterly.
That's why France is drastically cutting its nuclear fleet. It's way too expensive, and there are better options now. EDF's days of being a welfare queen are over.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC