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French company EDF manages to postpone closure of Fessenheim nuclear plant

French power company stalls nuclear plant closure http://www.dw.com/en/french-power-company-stalls-nuclear-plant-closure/a-19336521

The Fessenheim plant will not be closed until EDF is given a new assesment for damages compensation, the electric company has said. This pushes back plans to shut down the 40-year-old plant for at least a year. The fight over the plan to close France’s oldest operational nuclear power station took another turn on Thursday. The operators of the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant near the German and Swiss borders want a new assessment of the damages they will be awarded before they begin the process of shutting down the reactors.

The news came at the same time French nuclear watchdog ASH said one of Fessenheim’s reactors had to be shut down temporarily due to irregularities in a steam generator.

Opposition to Fessenheim began even before it was built in the 1970s, but has ramped up in recent years due to a number of minor safety breaches in the past decade. Leading the charge has been anti-nuclear power Germany, particularly the state of Baden-Württemberg, whose border lies a mere 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) from the reactors.

President Francois Hollande had promised to shut the plant by the end of 2016, but now EDF, France’s majority state-owned electrical company, wants a new appraisal of how much the government should pay it in damages for losses incurred as a result of the shut down. They say the 100 million euros ($114 million) offered by the government is far too little.

Observers say that a realistic timeline for the plant to go offline would be 2018, but to that end EDF has given no official date for its end of operations.

June 17, 2016 - Posted by | France, politics

1 Comment »

  1. EDF is around 85% French State owned. So, how can they say they have to have money from the French State before closing? It makes no sense at all. France and Russia are the two countries that could shut down the nuclear industry over night because they are state owned. France did something even more radical in the early 90s when it outlawed smoking in public places and government buildings. People were even smoking in classrooms with no ventilation and almost everyone smoked. But, they decided the insurance liability was too high because of smoking induced cancers and that nicotine patches were cheaper. If Areva and Rosatom shutdown that would leave mostly Toshiba (Westinghouse) and to a lesser extent GE-Hitachi. And, they can just be left to metaphorically hang themselves (financially).

    miningawareness's avatar Comment by miningawareness | June 19, 2016 | Reply


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