Fast reaction team for nuclear plants

FRANCE is setting up a rapid intervention force of specially-trained nuclear station staff to cope with serious incidents in the wake of Fukushima.

The first team in the €200m Force d'Action Rapide Nucléaire (FARN) is based at the Civaux plant in Vienne and will be able to reach any affected site within 24 hours. Three others are to be set up in the next two years at Paluel (Normandy), Dampierre (Loiret) and Bugey (Ain) to make a total of 300 staff.

EDF says “nothing will be as it was before” as it acts with the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) to make all French nuclear plants safer – but admits that it would take more than 10 years to act on all the lessons from the Japanese disaster.

Although all nuclear plant staff are trained to deal with emergencies, the new FARN team is different in that it can go where needed as the first hours after a nuclear accident are the most important to avoid any explosion. Their equipment includes a boat to access flooded areas.

EDF is set to spend €10 billion to improve safety at its nuclear plants – which provide around 75% of France’s electricity needs – through building new reinforced concrete retaining walls, higher anti-flood defences and installing new back-up generators. In addition, it is setting up new command centres in each plant with independent satellite communication links after the failure of communications at Fukushima.

However, anti-nuclear power campaigner Marc Saint Aroman, of Sortir du nucléaire, told France Info: “In the 1999 storm the Blayais plant was flooded, helicopters could not take off because of the wind and the roads were cut. They are selling us a pup with this FARN.” He added that the arrival of the new teams could also disrupt the chain of command in power plants.

On Saturday the group is planning a human chain through Paris from La Defense to Bercy.
Photo: EDF-ARTIGES REMY