Cruas Nuclear Power Plant

Cruas Nuclear Power Plant
Cruas Nuclear Power Plant
Official name	Centrale Nucléaire de Cruas
Country	France
Location	Cruas and Meysse, Ardèche
Coordinates	44°37′59″N 4°45′24″E
Status	Operational
Construction began	1978
Commission date	29 April 1983; 41 years ago (1983-04-29)
Operator	EDF
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Framatome
Power generation
Units operational	4 x 956 MW
Make and model	Alstom
Nameplate capacity	3824 MW
Capacity factor	69.4%
Annual net output	23,241 GW·h
External links
Website	www.edf.com
Commons	Related media on Commons

The Cruas Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power plant located in Cruas and Meysse communes, Ardèche next to the Rhône River in France. The site is 35 km north of Tricastin Nuclear Power Center and near the town of Montélimar.

The site contains 4 pressurized water reactors of 900 MW each, totaling 3600 MW total. The construction began in 1978, the reactors were built between 1983 and 1984.

The power station accounts for 4 to 5% of the electric energy production in France, and 40% of the annual usage by the Rhone-Alps area. The site employs about 1,200 workers and has an area of 148 hectares. Cooling water comes from the Rhône river.

Incidents

On 1 December 2009 reactor 4 was shut down after vegetation blocked the intake of the cooling system. The nuclear safety authority Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) classified the incident as level 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.^[1][2][3]

On 5 December 2011, two anti-nuclear campaigners breached the perimeter of the Cruas Plant, escaping detection for more than 14 hours, while posting videos of their sit-in on the internet.^[4]

A 4.8M earthquake in the Ardeche region on 11 November 2019 meant that Électricité de France was required to halt production and check equipment at the plant. This period offline will mean that EDF will not meet its annual power production projection.^[5]

Mural

Cooling tower mural on right. Art by Jean-Marie Pierret

In 1991 it was decided by the owners of the plant to carry out a Mural project on the cooling towers focusing on the topic of ecology. Author of the mural on the Tignes Dam, Jean-Marie Pierret was selected to design the painting, 9 mountaineers helped to actually paint the structure. The painting reflects the basics of Water and Air and is titled Aquarius, and was inaugurated in December 1991. It took 8,000 working hours and 4,000 litres (880 imp gal; 1,100 US gal) of paint to complete the project.

References

1. "Emergency at French nuclear power plant". Radio France Internationale. 2009-12-02. Archived from the original on 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
2. "Centrale nucléaire de Cruas arrêt à titre préventid de l'unité de procduction n°4" (PDF) (in French). Electricité de France. 2009-12-02. Retrieved 2009-12-04.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
3. Evangelia Petit (2009-12-02). "Levée du plan d'urgence interne à la centrale nucléaire de Cruas (Ardèche)" (in French). Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire. Archived from the original on 2009-12-05. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
4. Tara Patel (16 December 2011). "Breaches at N-plants heighten France's debate over reactors". Seattle Times.
5. France's EDF cuts nuclear output forecast after quake, SpaceWar.com, 2019-11-14