Belleville Nuclear Power Plant
The Belleville Nuclear Power Plant is located in Belleville-sur-Loire (Cher) near Léré, Cher, along the Loire River between Nevers (75 kilometres (47 mi) upstream) and Orléans (100 kilometres (62 mi) downstream). It employs approximately 620 people and consists of two large 1,300 MW P4 nuclear reactors. Its cooling water comes from the Loire River.
| Belleville Nuclear Power Plant | |
|---|---|
 The Belleville NPP | |
| |
| Official name | Centrale Nucléaire de Belleville |
| Country | France |
| Location | Belleville-sur-Loire |
| Coordinates | 47°30′35″N 2°52′30″E |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | Unit 1: May 1, 1980 Unit 2: August 1, 1980 |
| Commission date | Unit 1: June 1, 1988 Unit 2: January 1, 1989 |
| Owner(s) | |
| Operator(s) | EDF |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | PWR |
| Reactor supplier | Framatome |
| Cooling towers | 2 × Natural Draft |
| Cooling source | Loire River |
| Thermal capacity | 2 × 3817 MWth |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 2 × 1310 MW |
| Make and model | P4 REP 1300 |
| Nameplate capacity | 2620 MW |
| Capacity factor | 72.60% |
| Annual net output | 16,662 GW·h (2016) |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
Key information
The site spans 170 hectares and is located on a flood-safe, 4.6-meter-high platform. Each year it produces an average of 19 billion kilowatt hours fed to the electricity grid, and thus covers about four percent of French electricity production.
With the construction of the first reactor was started on May 1, 1980, and it began operation October 14, 1987. The second unit started construction August 1, 1980 and began operation July 6, 1988. The shutdown of the reactors is planned for the years 2028 and 2029 for unit 1 and 2.
Safety
In May 2001 construction-related defects were observed in this plant, along with four other sites.
The emergency cooling system of the two-phase nuclear power plant has a reserve water tank at the bottom of the reactor building. In the event of a defect in the primary cooling circuit that causes it to no longer contribute to cooling, the water from the reserve tank is automatically fed into the cooling system. Inspections in May 2001 showed, however, that this automatic feeding of the water was unreliable, because under some circumstances the pressure of the heated water may block the water slide.
The French nuclear regulatory authority ASN initially classified this disruption of the emergency cooling systems as stage 1 on the international scale of nuclear events (INES), but later assigned it the stage 2 classification. The operating company EDF then built the slider so that excess pressure can no longer lead to a blockage.
In 2017 the French nuclear regulator Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) placed Belleville under increased supervision because of "several failures by the operator in identifying and analysing the consequences of anomalies affecting certain safety-critical equipment". Belleville has had eight Level 1 events on the International Nuclear Event Scale.[1]
References
- "French regulator increases supervision of Belleville NPP". Nuclear Engineering International. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belleville nuclear power plant. |
- EDF site operator Belleville
- Centrale de Belleville - site de l'ASN Central Belleville - site of the ASN
- History of Central Belleville by the "green of Burgundy"
- Vue satellite sur Wikimapia : WikiMapia satellite view: The power of Belleville-sur-Loire
- Belleville 1 : INSC
- Belleville 2 : INSC
- Rapport 2007 Report 2007 under the Law of 13 June 2006 on transparency and nuclear safety