The last reactor of the Alsacian nuclear power plant of Fessenheim was put “ temporarily ” to shutdown Sunday after a “ malfunction ” detected on a tap, AFP learned from its operator, the electricity company EDF.
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Sunday " at 10.32 am, production unit no. 2 was temporarily disconnected from the national electricity network in order to carry out a short-term intervention on a tap located in the nuclear zone of the installation and on which a malfunction was noted " , EDF said in a press release posted on the website dedicated to the plant.
The tap in question is located " on an air circuit ", told AFP a spokesman for EDF. " This operation has no impact on the safety of the installation and on the environment, " insisted EDF in its press release. " The production unit will be reconnected to the power grid when the tap is operational again ," said the same source. According to the EDF spokesperson, the reactor should be reconnected " Tuesday ".
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Until then, the plant will no longer inject electricity into the network: the reactor shutdown on Sunday is indeed the last one still in operation in Fessenheim after the first reactor was shutdown on February 22. The second will also be disconnected on June 30, when Fessenheim will definitively cease production.
Commissioned in 1977, the dean of the French nuclear fleet is located along the Rhine, on the borders of Germany and Switzerland. French, German and Swiss environmentalists regularly denounced its obsolescence while EDF highlighted the many modernization works carried out.
