Discharges from nuclear power plants into the Loire Valley river13/03/2022 11:41
For the past year, we have taken a close interest in discharges from CNPEs in the Loire Valley, discharges during normal operation, authorized and declared by EDF.
We first collected all the discharge figures made by Belleville and Dampierre.
They questioned us about the enormous quantity (in tons) of various chemical products and heavy metals1, discharged directly into the Loire.
For Belleville and Dampierre, nearly 400 tonnes were discharged into the river water in 2020.
This is why we continued our investigations on the power stations of Saint Laurent-des-Eaux, Chinon, and Civaux (on the Vienne which flows into the Loire):
Colossal discharges from the 5 power plants: nearly 6000 tonnes of various substances were discharged into the Vienne and the Loire in 2020!!
We are not convinced that the various communities and administrations that manage water or work around water are well informed of all these discharges made in the Loire.
This is why we believe it is very important to draw attention to this problem of discharges from power plants, admittedly authorised, but the annual total of which appears to be obscured, whether by EDF, ASN, IRSN, the prefectures, the DREAL, public water establishments, etc.
Indeed, EDF always demonstrates that by dilution in the Loire water, the discharges always comply with the standards or limits imposed. However, these considerable discharges of effluents are very real, accumulating year after year, and this for 50 years.
To these chemical releases must be added
the radioactive discharges2 released into the water (213 TBq in 2020) admittedly also authorized, but substantial,
radioactive emissions2 into the atmosphere (10 Tbq in 2020),
chemical emissions into the atmosphere (1300 kg in 2020, which are not subject to limits),
and emissions of refrigerants, very powerful greenhouse gases, double the tolerance (100kg per plant) in 2020: 1020 kg for the 5 plants.
Not to mention the water needs of 716 million m3 (i.e. the equivalent of the annual drinking water consumption of 3 inhabitants):
625 million m3 taken from the Loire and 91 million m3 from the Vienne, of which almost half is evaporated into the atmosphere (by the air-cooling chimneys)
How not to imagine a cocktail effect of all these pollutants and an impact on the Loire biotopes by these cumulative discharges, year after year for 50 years, from the five nuclear power stations and this, up to the estuary3?
1 - Boric acid, Ammonium, Nitrates, Nitrites, Phosphates, Chlorides, Sodium, Sulphates, Copper, Zinc, Polyacrylates, Lithine, Total nitrogen, Morpholine or Ethanolamine (and its degradation products: nitrosomorpholine, diethanolamine, methylamine, pyrrolidine, diethylamine, ethylamine, acetates, formates, glycolates, oxalates), Hydrazine, Detergents, Organohalogens, Trihalomethanes, Total Residual Chlorine, various metals, Monochloramine (and its degradation products: monochloroacetic acid, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, bromochloroacetic acid, 1,1, XNUMX-dichloropropanone), chloroform...
2 - Tritium, carbon 14, iodines and other fission and activation products
3 - A recent “Pollusols” study confirms that we find in the sediments of the estuary, uranium and tritium, nuclear products... and questions us about the copper level which has doubled over the past 30 years. ..
“Even if they are low, these concentrations can be problematic for the environment and for human health. We are on chronic toxicity, with a cumulative effect over time and a possible combination of pollutants, ”explains the CNRS.
“As for tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen legally discharged into the waters of the Loire by the five nuclear power stations which border it or border its tributaries, it is found even in the sediments of the estuary which faithfully record all plant drops. The researchers also point to an accumulation of this toxic radioelement in plants, due to the ease with which it binds to organic matter, whether dead (like humus) or alive. »
https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/a-na ... n-des-solsMore:
https://www.sdn-berry-giennois-puisaye. ... la-loire1/