nuclear-news

French regulators allow oldest nuclear reactor to keep going

French nuclear watchdog allows Fessenheim to continue,  PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) – France’s nuclear watchdog on Monday gave its go-ahead for France’s oldest operating nuclear reactor in eastern France to continue working for another 10 years, a move that will anger ecologists.

But the government could still decide to shut the plant, commissioned in 1978, permanently after results of post-Fukushima stress tests are made public around mid-November.

There has been mounting pressure from ecologists over the last few years to permanently shut the plant because of its age, location in a seismic area and its proximity to the German border.

Fessenheim’s opponents stepped up their pressure after Japan’s nuclear disaster in March and after Germany decided last month to pull out of nuclear energy by 2022, arguing the plant would not resist an earthquake…….http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFWEB831820110704

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July 6, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety