Anti-nuclear activists call for the closure of the Bugey plant, now the oldest in operation since Fessenheim, on Monday night. Flee
Anti-nuclear activists call for the closure of the Bugey plant, now the oldest in operation since Fessenheim, on Monday night.
The beginning of the final move? Following the closure of the Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin) nuclear power plant on Monday night, Bugey (near Lyon), commissioned in 1972, is now the oldest in operation. And anti-nuclear activists are calling for its closure. “If the urgency to close Fessenheim was great and expected for years, there is more than ever a new priority: to close the four reactors of the Bugey plant,” the local branch of the Network-Out of Nuclear power said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Four units of this plant, located in the municipality of Saint-Vulbas (Ain), about thirty kilometers from Lyon as the crow flies, came into operation in 1978 and 1979. “All these plants that have been in operation for more than 40 years (…) must stop working before a serious accident. After that, it will be too late,” the activists added. The site is also a symbol of the fight against nuclear power: as early as 1971, a peaceful march against the plant drew more than 15,000 people, the first act in a series of mass protests that followed against other plant projects in the country.
radioactive leak discovered in 2017
According to them, the Bugey installation “has accumulated and accumulates too much damage, too many leaks, too many failures of all kinds to continue ‘as if nothing'”. On May 22, a police court in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, fined EDF €3,000 for a radiation leak discovered in the Rhône river, which borders the nuclear site, in December 2017.
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VIDEO – > > Fessenheim: reasons for closure
The four units of the Bugey power plant, each of 900 megawatts, produce the equivalent of 40% of the energy consumption of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region each year. In 2019, the site employed 1,375 energy agents and more than 600 employees, permanent service providers. Every year, “2,800 samples and 29,300 analyzes and measurements are carried out to control discharges from the site and its impact on the environment,” the operator states on his website.
Nuclear energy, “strategic asset” according to the mayor
France is aiming to reduce its reliance on nuclear power, cutting its share of electricity generation to 50% by 2035, compared with more than 70% today. This target was previously planned for 2025, but was considered unrealistic by the government. The goal: to shut down 14 reactors by 2035, two of which at the Fessenheim plant finally shut down on Monday night.
so far, no power plants are being shut down in the vicinity of the reactors (each site has at least four reactors). Even after Fessenheim, other changes to the sentence are not in the government’s plans. Urging not to “undermine this strategic asset”, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire even assured BFMTV on Tuesday that nuclear power remains “relevant” in France.
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The closure of Fessenheim, the dean of French nuclear power plants
For Bruno Le Maire, nuclear energy “is still relevant” in France Fessenheim: the oldest nuclear power plants in France close permanently Last reactor in Fessenheim stopped after “failure” of a tap
Presenting himself as a “defender of nuclear energy”, he pointed out two advantages of this energy: “It allows us to be a country that emits less CO2 for the production of electricity and that guarantees our independence”. Secretary of State Agnès Pannier-Runacher proved to be more nuanced. “Nuclear power today is a mixed blessing, at least in economic terms,” she told BFM Business. “We’re not ruling out the possibility of our energy mix. What we’re trying to do is balance the share of renewable energy and the share of nuclear energy,” she explained. No need to open the door with other shutters on the floor.
Date updated: July 1, 2020, 07:58
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn