Reactor shut down at Fessenheim
Number Two reactor at France’s oldest nuclear facility back online after Easter weekend shutdown
ONE OF the two reactors at France’s oldest nuclear plant, Fessenheim, automatically shut down over the Easter weekend.
The Number Two reactor at the 37-year-old facility automatically shut down shortly after 10.40pm on April 18, after a fault was detected in a turbine generator, EDF said.
The reactor was back online on Sunday afternoon, the power supplier reported on its website.
A spokesman said that the incident had “no impact” on safety at the plant and posed no environmental risk.
He said: “Automatic shutdown was triggered after a valve, which regulates steam supply to the turbine generator in the non-nuclear part of the plant, closed unexpectedly."
According to EDF, the shutdown, which it said was similar to an electrical circuit breaker being triggered, was unrelated to the age of the Fessenheim plant in the Haut-Rhin, Alsace.
The facility’s other reactor has been shutdown since April 9 after a leak was detected in the water supply line of a non-nuclear area of the unit.
Fessenheim was commissioned in 1977 and is due to be closed in 2016. Last month, Greenpeace activists staged a protest at the plant.
