Penly Nuclear Power Plant

Penly Nuclear Power Plant
File:Penly nuclear power plant and villages around - aerial view.JPG
Location of Penly Nuclear Power Plant in France
Official name	Centrale Nucléaire de Penly
Country	France
Location	Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Coordinates
Status	Operational
Construction began	1982
Commission date	4 May 1990 (1990-05-04)
Operator(s)	EDF
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Framatome
Cooling source	English Channel
Cooling towers	no
Power generation
Units operational	2 x 1,382 MW
Make and model	Alstom
Units planned	1 x 1,650 MW
Nameplate capacity	2,764 MW
Annual generation	19,418 GWh
Website Site c/o Betreibers

The Penly Nuclear power station (French: Centrale nucléaire de Penly) is found some 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Dieppe. It lies on the border of two French municipalities: Penly and Saint-Martin-en-Campagne in the département of Seine-Maritime, Normandy, on the English Channel coast. It employs France's only working funicular railway in industrial use.

Data

The plant employs about 670 people full-time and is owned and operated by the French company Électricité de France (EDF). Water from the English Channel is used for cooling.

The two PWR units are of the 1330 MWe class. The installed total output is 2764 MW, which means the plant is about average for French nuclear plants. It feeds on average about 18 billion kilowatt-hours per year into the public grid, corresponding to about 80% of the current annual consumption of Normandy. It is about ten kilometres from Dieppe.

Proposed third reactor

In January 2009, the French government announced that a third reactor, the second French EPR reactor, would be built in Penly. Construction was announced for 2012 with connection to the grid following in 2017. GDF Suez was to own a part of the plant, with the majority taken by EdF. However in 2010 GDF Suez withdrew from the project. In 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, EdF postponed public consultations putting in doubt the 2012 construction start date. In 2013, it confirmed there was no start plan for Penly, saying that current demand did not warrant it.

Accidents and incidents

9 June 2004 - Weakly radioactive water was leaked into the sea from the reserve tank of a reactor's secondary circuit.

11 October 2011 - A subcontractor employee had localised contamination on his face.

5 April 2012 - 10 Fire engines attended a small fire within a reactor building. The operating company later reported two small oil fires inside the reactor building from a leaking oil pipe were extinguished with nobody hurt and no environmental impact. The detection of smoke caused the reactor to be automatically shut down.

6 April 2012 - As a consequence of the incident of 5 April 2012 a joint had leaked radioactive water into collection tanks inside the reactor building. The incident was classified as 1 out of 7 (lowest) on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

External links

• Site officiel de la centrale de Penly
• Commission particulière du débat public - Penly 3
• La construction d'un deuxième réacteur nucléaire EPR fait polémique