Fessenheim nuclear power station: we passed the terminals! The 18 March 2008 marks the 30 years of operation of the No. 2 reactor
This Tuesday 18 March 2008, thirty years ago, the second reactor of the
Fessenheim nuclear power plant was commissioned.
Originally designed to last twenty years, according to the words of the engineers of the time, this reactor and its "brother" should never have been built:
- installed below the Grand Canal d'Alsace, the two nuclear reactors of Fessenheim are exposed to the risk of sudden breakage of the dyke. And the obstinate refusal of EDF to consider such a possibility will certainly not reduce the danger ...
- located on an active seismic fault, the Fessenheim power plant would not withstand an earthquake identical to the one which devastated the city of Basel in 1356: the "Sortir du nuclear" Network made public in June 2003 confidential documents from 'EDF, which showed that the IRSN (Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety) formally contested EDF's calculations.
More recently, a new Swiss expertise has shown that these are the very foundations of the original study that should be reviewed.
After 30 years of service, interrupted by repeated incidents, after hundreds of millions of euros spent on repairs and
maintenance, the balance of this reactor is particularly
eloquent:
- the last two years, during which this reactor was only available seven months a year, are among the eight worst years of operation since 30 years.
- in 2007, the reactor # 2 had to be stopped from October 18 to 30
December 2007, for refueling, but also for more than 6000 control and maintenance activities "(dixit EDF), activities which generated no less than 5 incidents and 7 cases of
radioactive contamination of the workers involved in these
operations.
- early 2008, after two and a half months of maintenance work, a pipe fastener dropped barely a week after restarting : 5 days off and a new incident when restarting the reactor.
- since the February 18, the reactor is again stopped because of
of a radioactive leak of the primary circuit ...
Over two and a half months in 2008, the 2 reactor will have operated less than half the time, with a shortfall of the order of 160 000 euros per day of failure: since January 1er, it is already more than five million euros have been lost.
No matter how hard EDF is to extend this reactor beyond any technical or financial logic, it is time to face the facts: after thirty years of breakdowns and various incidents, the
reactor No. 2 of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant has reached beyond its limits. Dangerous by nature, a nuclear reactor is even more so when it is aging.
It is a pity that EDF and the French authorities do not seize the crucial date of March 18, 2008 to permanently close this plant. If the worst happens, those "responsible" will be totally to blame.
It does not prevent, as an Alsatian we can also ask the question of the choice by EdF of Alsace to install the 1er nuclear nuclear reactor.
The Vosges barrier makes it a "natural border" for a possible radioactive cloud and thus isolates (partially) from the rest of France. Germany is not the problem of the French State ... and then the Alsatians are not really French ... it's sad to say but that's what many people still think in France ...