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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?

#171

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…

Fessenheim nearly got out of control in 2016 when water flooded electrical equipment racks. Control of of the reactor rods was interrupted, core temperature was rising uncontrollably. Letting the control rods fall into the core via gravity didn't work anymore either. They had to emergency flood the core with Boron, which luckily worked, the first time this has happened in a western european power reactor. They assign…

Hmm, wikipedia (and the ASN used as source) seems to describe this incident a bit differently. I didn't see anything about core temperature rising uncontrollably, it's slightly inaccurate to say that control of the rods themselves was interrupted (only a positioning indicator; they could've emergency shut down the reactor with the rods if they needed to; not sure why you say the control rod failsafe didn't work), and the "emergency flood" of boron which "luckily worked" was standard operating procedure. Do you have a better source?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fessenheim_Nuclear_Power_Plant...

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

#172

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…

Fessenheim nearly got out of control in 2016 when water flooded electrical equipment racks. Control of of the reactor rods was interrupted, core temperature was rising uncontrollably. Letting the control rods fall into the core via gravity didn't work anymore either. They had to emergency flood the core with Boron, which luckily worked, the first time this has happened in a western european power reactor. They assign…

Sources on the "via gravity didn't work anymore" please.

Official report says it wasn't tried and remained a last line of defense. http://www.french-nuclear-safety.fr/Media/Files/Technical-no...

Also it was 2014, not 2016.

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

#173
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fessenheim nearly got out of control in 2016 when water flooded electrical equipment racks. Control of of the reactor rods was interrupted, core temperature was rising uncontrollably. Letting the control rods fall into the core via gravity didn't work anymore either. They had to emergency flood the core with Boron, which luckily worked, the first time this has happened in a western european power reactor. They assign…

Hmm, wikipedia (and the ASN used as source) seems to describe this incident a bit differently. I didn't see anything about core temperature rising uncontrollably, it's slightly inaccurate to say that control of the rods themselves was interrupted (only a positioning indicator; they could've emergency shut down the reactor with the rods if they needed to; not sure why you say the control rod failsafe didn't work), and…

I've just added a more detailed source to Wikipedia (also from ASN), but it doesn't contain any new facts. A cursory google search didn't yield anything reliable confirming the parent's version.

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

#174
post #153
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current renewable generation is two thirds hydro, one third solar and wind. France's installed capacity for solar plus wind already exceeds hydro. With plenty of room for more.

> installed capacity for solar plus wind Installed capacity for solar and wind is a parameter that seems pretty meaningless. For example (according to Wikipedia) the Agua Caliente solar project in Arizona (an ideal location), has an effective output of less than 30% of its installed capacity. A PV plant more comparable with France's conditions, the Lauingen Energy Park in Bavaria, has an output of 12% of its installe…

I never claimed that installed capacity equals effective output, that's obviously not true. I don't think the figures are meaningless, either, but whatever --

Grandparent claimed that the bulk of renewable energy produced in France is hydro (and called me disingenuous). I just cited some statistics -- installed capacity as well as current effective output! -- to put his claim into context. Here are some more[1]: Energy production by source in France, 2019, Hydro 55.5 TWh, Wind 34.1 TWh, Solar 11.6 TWh. Obviously anybody is free to assign whatever value one wishes to terms like "bulk of", but those are the numbers.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/768066/electricity-produ...

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

#175
post #80
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a very focused elite building system in which the big universities creating the future members of the elite are heavily financed and influenced by pro-nuclear organizations. That goes especially for politicans, but includes engineers. The pro-nuclear propaganda repeated by the people that go through this is frightening, many of them are completely brainwashed. In no way can the ASN be really independent, as…

Can you point to any specific and concrete safety issue? (as opposed to, without any evidence, questioning the integrity of the people trying to reduce CO2 emissions by extending the lifetime of existing nuclear plants).

Sure. I will cite Zeit.de, a german newspaper. They write in https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-02/atomkraftwerk-fe...:

> Das 1977 ans Netz gegangene Atomkraftwerk Fesseheim gilt seit Jahrzehnten als Sicherheitsrisiko. Es liegt in einem Erdbebengebiet und ist unzureichend gegen einen Flugzeugabsturz oder einen Anschlag geschützt. Zudem kam es immer wieder zu Pannen.

They link to https://www.zeit.de/wissen/2016-03/fessenheim-atomenergie-zw..., a report about how the ASN lied about how bad an accident in April 2014 was.

There definitely were safety issues, the only question is how bad they were.

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

#176

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…

Fessenheim nearly got out of control in 2016 when water flooded electrical equipment racks. Control of of the reactor rods was interrupted, core temperature was rising uncontrollably. Letting the control rods fall into the core via gravity didn't work anymore either. They had to emergency flood the core with Boron, which luckily worked, the first time this has happened in a western european power reactor. They assign…

We can't be sure, but based on the french independent nuclear authority, this does not look to be accurate. Just the dramatized version of a German anti-nuclear group:

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2016/03/04/un-inciden...

It is in French, but it is saying that nothing was out of control and out of ordinary small issues. The temperature was a little bit out of the normal during the operations but that is quite common. And they used Boron because it was the adequate procedure in this case but again not out of ordinary. They decided to not use the control rodes that were not operating 'automaticaly' because of the disruption of the flooded system. But manual control was still available if they wanted to. And at the same time, like in a space shuttle, every electric control circuits are mirrored for safety. So the control room A was affected by the flooding but the control room B and the B circuits were ok, unaffected and operational as designed!

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

#177

There is a pro nuclear power lobby that loves to trivialise toxic radio active waste. They argue that storing it in caves with clear warning signs will deter future generations from accidentally messing about with its content. They forgot historical context can be quickly lost over a few thousand years and assume there will not be a technological dark age in the future. CO2 might well introduce long term damage to th…

Why should we worry about the tiny possibility that a few people in the future will die in the unlikely event that society regresses so much that we forget how to build a Geiger counter when air pollution caused by burning coal is killing tens of millions of people a year right now?

It might well be some teenage boys finding bright yellow coloured barrels with interesting symbols in a cave. Which teenage boy can read warnings written in Egyptian hieroglyphs?

That doesn't justify burning coal, however, there are many renewable energy sources that do not produce pollution or toxic waste that is hazardous for ten thousand years.

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

#178
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not dishonest. Where are the storage facilities? Is Hanford a disaster or not? Were there fundamental quality and safety issues in the 70s(and before) around nuclear facilities? Pointing out that other stuff is "just as bad as nuclear" is not helping the argument for nuclear.

> Where are the storage facilities? Yucca Mountain was bulldozed by the anti-nuclear faction. Hooray? > Is Hanford a disaster or not? Unquestionably. > Pointing out that other stuff is "just as bad as nuclear" is not helping the argument for nuclear. That's generally how decision-making works: you weigh the tradeoffs and make the best choice. Well, that's how it's supposed to work, I suppose. If you refuse, well, nat…

Yucca Mountain was controverse at best. you know a storage facility needs to withstands over thousands years. It's basically impossible to plan for that with our limited living years.

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

#179
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is sensible behavior suddenly political? The owner/operator of the facility, EDF, envisaged a 40 year life for all 2nd generation reactors. That would have meant the reactor would have been shut down 2 years ago. It's in a flood zone and a 2011 commission found that it didn't have necessary redundant cooling in place should the canals around it fail. It's in a seismically active area. It's on a river over an aqui…

As stated in the article, the 40 year lifespan is a lie from 'les verts'. The facility was built for 40 year with minimal maintenance. This is not the lifespan if the facility was well maintained.

Maintenance for nuclear in France is not "minimal": for the past two years (2018 2019) capacity factor of nuclear power in France has been around 70% mainly due to maintenance according to RTE (1)

For reference best UK offshore wind farm had 55.3% capacity factor in 2019 and UK offshore wind average capacity factor was 40.6% in 2019 (2)

(1) https://media.rte-france.com/bilan-electrique-2019-2/ 379.5 Twh produced, 63.1 GW installed, 68.7% capacity factor

(2) https://energynumbers.info/uk-offshore-wind-capacity-factors

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

#180
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because you can't choose when the sun shines and when the wind blows. This is a terrible argument. There is always some place on the grid where the wind is blowing and (during the day) the sun is shining.

That's far from guaranteed. It's very possible to have little wind over a large area, larger than France even, during the night.

Do you have any actual numbers to back these claims up?
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