A first reactor of the Gravelines nuclear power plant (North) restarted on Wednesday August 13, announced EDF, while the production of the site was completely paralyzed since Monday morning because of the massive presence of jellyfish.
“Reactor n ° 6 restarted this morning at 7:30 am”according to an EDF spokesperson interviewed by the France-Presse agency. The electrician specifies in a press release that the production unit has been reconnected to the national electrical network. Three other reactors are currently arrested due to numerous jellyfish who failed in the filter drums of seawater pumping stations used to cool the installations.
EDF specifies that “The reconnection of production units No. 2, 3 and 4 will be done gradually, in the coming days. Units n ° 1 and 5 remain at the end of their scheduled maintenance ».
Gravelines, one of the main power plants in France, is cooled thanks to pumped water in a channel connected to the North Sea. Its six pressurized water reactors produce 900 megawatts each, or 5.5 gigawatts in all. The site must also accommodate two new generation reactors (EPR2) of 1,600 megawatts each by 2040.
These automatic judgments of units 2, 3, 4 and 6 “Have not had a consequence on the safety of the facilities, the safety of the staff or the environment”had assured the electrician. The central teams had to proceed “The diagnostics and interventions necessary to be able to restart the production units in complete safety”said EDF on Monday, who initially planned a restart on Thursday.
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