The Flamanville nuclear power plant in
northwestern France, first came online
in the 1980s PHTO: AFP Photo/CHARLY
TRIBALLEAU
An explosion at a nuclear power plant
on France’s northwest coast on
Thursday caused minor injuries, but
the authorities said there was no risk
of radiation.
The blast took place in the engine
room at the Flamanville plant, which
lies 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of
the port of Cherbourg and just across
from the Channel Islands.
“It is a technical incident. It is not a
nuclear accident,” senior local official
Jacques Witkowski told AFP.
He said a ventilator had exploded
outside the nuclear zone at the plant,
which has been in operation since the
1980s and is operated by state-
controlled energy giant EDF.
“It’s all over. The emergency teams are
leaving,” Witkowski said.
Five people suffered smoke inhalation
but there were no serious injuries,
Witkowski said.
One of the two pressurised water
reactors at the plant was shut down
after the explosion and the incident
was declared over at 1100 GMT, the
authorities said.
The two 1,300 megawatt reactors have
been in service since 1985 and 1986,
and the site currently employs 810
people, alongside an additional 350
subcontractors.
A new third-generation reactor known
as EPR is being built at Flamanville,
which will be the world’s largest when
it goes into operation in late 2018.
– ‘Improved safety record’ –
Construction of the new reactor at the
site in Normandy began in 2007 and
was initially due for completion in
2012 but has been delayed several
times, and its initial budget has more
than tripled, to 10.5 billion euros
($11.2 billion).
EDF said its safety record at nuclear
sites improved last year, with 2.3
accidents for every one million hours
worked, compared with 2.6 in 2015.
That translates into five accidents that
required reactor shutdowns in 2016,
after eight the previous year.
France relies heavily on nuclear
power, building its first nuclear plant
in 1977 at Fessenheim, a site on the
border with Germany that is set to be
decommissioned in 2018.
Nuclear reactors generate about 75
percent of France’s electricity supply,
a level the government wants to bring
down to 50 percent by 2025.
Fessenheim, located on a seismic fault
line, has worried French, German and
Swiss environmentalists for years and
its fate has been the subject of dispute
with Berlin.
France and Germany are close EU
partners but have taken vastly
different approaches to power
generation.
Germany — where the public mood
swung against nuclear power
following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
— decided to phase out nuclear power
following Japan’s Fukushima
meltdown in 2011.
