This is the end point of years of debate: the final shutdown and dismantling of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, the oldest in France, was ratified by a decree published in the Official Journal. Next Saturday, February 22, at 2:30 am, its reactor # 1 will be shut down, the start of a very long process before the total shutdown of the plant.
It should take place in 2040, since EDF, which manages the dismantling, forecasts that the operation will extend over 20 years. First step: shut down the reactors. After the first, this Saturday, it will be the turn of reactor 2, next June 30.
Fuel evacuation
The dismantling will then take place in three stages. First, it is necessary to dispose of dangerous and radioactive substances. “Nuclear fuel is stored in cooling pools, explains Thierry Charles, deputy director general of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). It is then evacuated to the La Hague spent nuclear fuel treatment center. "
This is the step that is likely to cause the most damage in the event of an accident. But it is also a common operation in nuclear power plants: "It's the same as a unit outage," explains Thierry Charles. Unit outages take place every 12 to 18 months to dispose of the spent nuclear fuel. "We unload the heart," he continues, "we put it in the pool, it cools, then we evacuate." Except that this time we empty all the pools. "
The dismantling
At the end of this first stage, which will last approximately five years, the majority of the site's radioactivity will have been removed. Then begins the actual dismantling. Depending on the plant, the teams can start by dismantling the least radioactive elements, to finish by cutting the tank itself, or else start with the tank, to finish with the buildings and equipment around, which are less exposed.
This stage is the longest: for Fessenheim, it will last 15 years. The dismantled materials are then evacuated to a storage center, managed by the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management.
Prepare for the after
Can then begin the third and last step of dismantling: the remediation of the site. The structure of the old plant is cleaned, to remove all traces of radioactivity and allow the site to be reused.
There remains a final challenge: managing the economic consequences of the closure of the oldest nuclear power plant in France, which represented more than 2,000 direct or indirect jobs.