Gravelines Nuclear Power Plant
Encyclopedia
The Gravelines Nuclear Power Station is the fifth largest nuclear power station in the world. It is located in Nord, France
, approximately 20 km (12 mi) from Dunkerque and Calais
. Its cooling water comes from the North Sea
. The plant houses 6 nuclear reactors. Two entered service in 1980, two in 1981, and two in 1985. The site employs 1680 regular employees. As of the 2nd of August 2010, it became the first nuclear station anywhere in the world to produce over one thousand terawatt-hour of electricity.
The design for Gravelines units 5 and 6 was the basis for the Chinese CPR-1000
design.
who raise European seabass
and gilt-head bream
s. The warm water helps them grow faster.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, approximately 20 km (12 mi) from Dunkerque and Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
. Its cooling water comes from the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. The plant houses 6 nuclear reactors. Two entered service in 1980, two in 1981, and two in 1985. The site employs 1680 regular employees. As of the 2nd of August 2010, it became the first nuclear station anywhere in the world to produce over one thousand terawatt-hour of electricity.
The design for Gravelines units 5 and 6 was the basis for the Chinese CPR-1000
CPR-1000
The CPR-1000 is a Generation II+ pressurized water reactor, based on the French 900 MWe three cooling loop design imported in the 1990s, improved to have a net power output of 1,000 MWe and a 60 year design life....
design.
Events
- In August 2009, during the yearly exchanging of fuel bundles in Reactor-1, one bundle got stuck to the upper handling structure, stopping the operations and causing the evacuation and isolation of the reactor's building.
- In 2007, the plant experienced four separate events that qualified as Level-1 on the INES ScaleInternational Nuclear Event ScaleThe International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to enable prompt communication of safety significance information in case of nuclear accidents....
.
- In 2006 when Unit-3 was taken offline for routine refueling. It was discovered that an electrical wire had not been plugged in correctly during the last outage in 2005. This too ranked Level-1 on the INES ScaleInternational Nuclear Event ScaleThe International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to enable prompt communication of safety significance information in case of nuclear accidents....
.
Cooling Water
The cooling water that carries waste heat from the plant is used by a local commune of aquafarmersFish farming
Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases young fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species'...
who raise European seabass
European seabass
The European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, also known as Morone labrax, is a primarily ocean-going fish that sometimes enters brackish and fresh waters. It is also known as the sea dace...
and gilt-head bream
Gilt-head bream
The gilt-head bream is a fish of the bream family Sparidae found in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern coastal regions of the North Atlantic Ocean...
s. The warm water helps them grow faster.