A fire occurred during the night of Friday February 9 to Saturday February 10 at the Chinon nuclear power plant (Indre-et-Loire) at a transformer located outside the nuclear zone.
This fire did not cause any injuries and had no
“impact on the environment”
, announced EDF.
Around 2:40 a.m.,
“a fire broke out at the Chinon nuclear power plant, at the main transformer of production unit number 3, located outside the nuclear zone.
Production unit number 3 of the Chinon nuclear power plant shut down automatically, in accordance with the reactor's safety and protection systems
,” EDF said in a press release.
An internal emergency plan triggered
The plant’s intervention teams
“immediately went to the site, and in accordance with procedures, external emergency services were called.
The fire is out
,” added the press release.
“Production units No. 3 and No. 4 are safely shut down
,” according to the same source.
The Nuclear Safety Agency indicated on its website that an internal emergency plan had been triggered.
“The loss of main external electrical power to Reactor 3, following this fire, resulted in the automatic shutdown of the reactor.
The fire equipment necessary to extinguish the fire has been put into service
,” indicates ASN on its website.
“The ASN will be attentive to the monitoring of the rainwater network on reactors 3 and 4 and will examine, in conjunction with EDF and the IRSN (Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, Editor's note), the conditions for lifting the emergency plan. internal emergency, in order to authorize its lifting
,” the press release continues.
The Chinon nuclear power plant has four 900 MWe pressurized water reactors.
“In 2023, it produced 17.24 TWh of low CO2 electricity, which represents approximately 5.4% of French nuclear electricity production
,” indicates EDF on its site.