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Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

sustainability-times.com

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Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#31

Post by steeve »

Few things:

1. The only body qualified to asses the safety of a nuclear power plant is the french nuclear safety agency, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN)

2. ASN deemed its security "very satisfying" [1]

3. The usual fallacious arguments have been debunked time and time again (seismic fault, various upgrades, more incidents than other plants etc...)

4. Read the actual report on Fessenheim from ASN [1]

The actual answer from the article:

The answer to why Fessenheim is closing is sadly one of politics. It goes back to 2012 when then President of France, Francois Hollande, made a deal to guarantee the support of the Greens (les Verts). Hollande promised France would reduce its reliance on nuclear to 50% instead of 75% of all electricity.

Part of the deal was to close Fessenheim.

1. https://www.asn.fr/L-ASN/L-ASN-en-region/Grand-Est/Installat...

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#32

Post by eqvinox »

sleazy_b wrote: post #14
eqvinox wrote: post #3

actual answer: it's right on the border to Germany and has a long history of low-level incidents, and the Germans were starting to get seriously pissed off at that. It's also the oldest nuclear power plant France was still running. Oh and also the Rhine valley is seismically active, even if only at a low level.

A review of the plant’s page on Wikipedia shows that it did indeed have a number of low level incidents. Do you have any sources about those being the true cause of the shutdown?

> Do you have any sources about those being the true cause of the shutdown?

I don't, and I'm not sure it's possible to figure out exactly — since it's politically sensitive and possibly involved "back channel pressure" and other shenanigans.

That said, it has been a longstanding topic in German anti-nuclear circles, cf. list of articles (German) on:

https://www.heise.de/tp/thema/AKW-Fessenheim

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#34

Post by _ph_ »

_iyig wrote: post #16

Reminds me of the German government’s decision, made in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, to phase out all German nuclear power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_phase-out An immediate effect of this decision was to increase Germany’s reliance on fossil fuels, including “brown coal” which is strip-mined in an extraordinarily environmentally-destructive process. Another effect was to increase the German g…

The German grid does not rely on nuclear power from France. Germany is a net exporter. Of course, with an European electricity network, there is a lot of electricity moved around every day, often reversing directions in a few hours, depending on local needs and production.

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#35

Post by morsch »

Mirioron wrote: post #23
freeflight wrote: post #12

It's weird of the article gives plenty of direct citations from nuclear operators, while at the same time acting like French 40+ year old fission tech doesn't have any issues [0] or sustainability problems, and how the French could dare to shut down one of their first reactors. Particularly in the context that most discussions surrounding nuclear fission power generation lead with "modern designs and reactors being s…

What are the consequences of the inevitable natural gas or coal power plant that will replace it? There's always a lot of talk about renewables, yet it seems that we still end up with a fossil fuel based powerplant. It's not like France is building new nuclear plants to replace the ones that are shutting down.

> There's always a lot of talk about renewables

It's odd to pretend that renewables are all talk when at the moment I'm writing this France's power grid is 28% renewable[1]. And France still has lots of opportunities to expand, both solar and wind. You'd think with >4000km of coast line there'd be lots of space for offshore wind.

[1] https://www.electricitymap.org/zone/FR and 60% nuclear, but the point still stands

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#37

Post by skocznymroczny »

_iyig wrote: post #16

Reminds me of the German government’s decision, made in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, to phase out all German nuclear power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_phase-out An immediate effect of this decision was to increase Germany’s reliance on fossil fuels, including “brown coal” which is strip-mined in an extraordinarily environmentally-destructive process. Another effect was to increase the German g…

"brown coal" = lignite

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#38

Post by [deleted] »

cjblomqvist wrote: post #7

This article sounds too bad to be true in my ears. For example, Germany is shutting down their coal plants gradually until 2038 (why would they then commission one this year, as stated by the article?). I agree it sounds stupid to shut it down prematurely, and I agree the green movement (at least here in Sweden, and apparently also in France) is many times doing stupid things that actually harm the environment, but t…

[deleted]

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#39

Post by AnthonyMouse »

morsch wrote: post #22
cjblomqvist wrote: post #7

This article sounds too bad to be true in my ears. For example, Germany is shutting down their coal plants gradually until 2038 (why would they then commission one this year, as stated by the article?). I agree it sounds stupid to shut it down prematurely, and I agree the green movement (at least here in Sweden, and apparently also in France) is many times doing stupid things that actually harm the environment, but t…

> why would they then commission one this year, as stated by the article Unfortunately, that really happened[1]. Commission as in started running, not as in started constructing, which they did in 2007. The usual argument is that a modern coal power plant replaces older ones and more efficient/less polluting. Obviously, it's all very controversial. [1] https://www.dw.com/en/climate-activists-protest-germanys-new...

> The usual argument is that a modern coal power plant replaces older ones and more efficient/less polluting.

Which is, of course, bullocks even if it's true, because the alternative exists to shut down the older coal fired power plants and replace them with something that isn't coal at all. Like nuclear, or solar. Even natural gas would be better than coal.

Re: Why is the Fessenheim 2 nuclear power plant closing in France?

#40

Post by _ph_ »

scohesc wrote: post #5
eqvinox wrote: post #3

actual answer: it's right on the border to Germany and has a long history of low-level incidents, and the Germans were starting to get seriously pissed off at that. It's also the oldest nuclear power plant France was still running. Oh and also the Rhine valley is seismically active, even if only at a low level.

So in other words, Germany (with some the most serious "green tech" laws) is basically forcing France to shut down their plant, even though it's been operating mostly fine and has been actually helping fight climate change for a long time already.

Germany would be the main country affected, if there were a major "mishap" at Fessenheim. Basically the whole south of Germany would be impacted with large cities like Stuttgart, Augsburg and of course München.
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