France powers down nuclear reactors over heatwave

PARIS - France’s main energy provider on July 12 said three nuclear reactors had been temporarily shut down and eight others were operating at reduced power due to the heatwave sweeping France.

“Due to the weather conditions and to comply with regulations on (cooling water) discharges, and thus to protect the environment,” reactors at the Golfech, Bugey and Chooz plants, located on the banks of the Garonne, Rhone and Meuse rivers respectively, have been shut down, the EDF energy group told AFP.

The measure is an environmental protection requirement to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming from the heatwave.

Power plants critical to the country’s electricity production use river water to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into the river.

The economy ministry on July 11 issued an exemption to the temperature limits for the heating of the Rhone around the Bugey plant “to ensure the security of the power grid”, valid until July 20.

The shut downs are the second time in recent weeks that EDF has had to stop nuclear reactors due to extreme heat, after a record-breaking heatwave hit France in June.

On July 12, the third heatwave to sweep the country since May saw more than a third of France under the national weather service’s highest heat alert.

More than 25 million people were baking in temperatures that forecasters said could reach up to 41 deg C, according to an AFP tally based on population data.

The heatwave has forced tourist hot spots to shutter early, event cancellations and a shortened stage on the Tour de France.

Wildfires have proliferated and deaths by drowning have spiked amid the heat.

Since the end of May, France has been hit hard by repeated episodes of intense heat, which have caused excess mortality and exposed problems with infrastructure maladapted to extreme weather, the increasing frequency of which scientists have linked to man-made climate change. AFP