Egshiglen 12C ESS class

Use of nuclear power in France

Nuclear power is the largest source of electricity in France, with a generation of 379.5 TWh, or
70.6% of the country's total electricity production of 537.7 TWh, the highest percentage in the
world.

In 1974, the French government decided to go ‘nuclear’ as the result of the oil shock and a lack
of any real indigenous energy resources, this was known as the Messmer Plan after the then
Prime Minister, Pierre Messmer. With nuclear power at the heart of energy strategy, the aim
was to make France completely independent of the oil-rich nations. It was initially envisaged
that 80 plants were to be built by 1985 with a further 110 plants in operation by 2000, based on
electricity demand estimates doubling every 10 years.
Their demand forecasts fortunately did not come to fruition, and so actually there are currently
only 58 commercially operated nuclear reactors in France (and one test fast breeder reactor) all
operated by EDF, producing approximately 421TWh of electricity every year. These 58 reactors
are situated within 20 nuclear power plants and accounted for 78% of the total electricity
generated in France during 2011.

Exporting French Produced Electricity to the UK

EDF exports some of the electricity it produces in its nuclear power plants to neighboring

countries. In 2010, France exported 2.66TWh of electricity directly to the UK. In 2017, France
exported 38 TWh of electricity to its neighbors. 

Electricity Prices and Environmental Costs

In 2009, EDF estimated that it produced nuclear energy at a cost of EUR 4.6 cents/kWh, while
the energy regulator CRE put the figure at 4.1 cents/kWh, which is a relatively cheap source of
power, however it does obviously produce nuclear waste that needs to be treated / stored, and
there are decommissioning costs associated with nuclear power.
Nuclear waste is limited in France though compared to such countries as the USA, because it is
allowed to reprocess old fuel rods, extracting the unused Uranium and Plutonium and making
them into new fuel rods. The spent nuclear fuel is all reprocessed at the La Hague site (this site
has almost 50% of the world’s reprocessing capacity), which over the years has faced some
oppositions.

Matching Electricity Supply and Demand in France

Nuclear power tends to provide much of the base power to the energy mix, with plants being
kept on 24/7 as this is by far the most economical way of running the plants, and there is very
little flexibility in their output. In France however, they have tried to use nuclear plants in a
more flexible way, by attempting to match supply with demand, meaning some plants are not
in operation over weekends. This has actually meant that the plants have a relatively low
capacity factor. Despite this, matching supply and demand is not easy, and as such France
exports much of the electricity it produces from nuclear, and imports electricity to help meet
demand when it is especially high. Unfortunately it can only export electricity when demand is
low, so the price that France receives for its exported electricity is also low. Conversely, when it
suffers peaked demand and needs to import additional electricity it is obviously charged at a
higher rate.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The nuclear accident happened in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) plant in
northern Japan, is the second worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear
power generation. 

On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered an unprecedented triple disaster. A 9.0 M earthquake
occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a large tsunami that rose to a height of
over 30 meters, and traveled as far as 10 kilometers inland. The earthquake and tsunami
damaged Japan’s oldest nuclear power plant, setting off a chain of events culminating in a
nuclear accident.

The triple disaster resulted in over 15,000 deaths, explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station (NPS), expulsion of radioactive material into the air, and release of contaminated
water into the ocean. 

Why did the Fukushima Daiichi plant not resist to the earthquake and the tsunami?

In the planning and construction of the power plant, external hazards such as tsunamis were
evaluated mainly on the basis of historical seismic records and evidence of recent tsunamis in
Japan. However, the methodological method applied was not fully appropriate and did not fully
explore the possible scenarios that could lead to severe reactor core damage.

The flooding created by the tsunami simultaneously challenged the key protective levels of
plant equipment and systems resulting in common cause failures that were not anticipated in
the design.

By consequence, the complete loss of power led to the failure of the three fundamental
functions important for ensuring the safety of a nuclear plant:
 The control of reactivity in the nuclear fuel;
 The removal of heat from the reactor core and spent fuel pool;
 The confinement of radioactive material.
Also, the vulnerability of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to external hazards had not
been reassessed in a systematic and comprehensive manner during its lifetime.
Local distribution
The radioactive materials were first blown towards the Pacific by the wind. After the explosion
of reactor 3, the wind direction changed and regions more to the northwest of the accident got
contaminated. Particularly high levels of radiation are measured in the soil outside the 30-km
(evacuation) zone. Large parts of Japan are contaminated with cesium, mainly in the northeast.
Parts of this region will remain uninhabitable and unusable for agriculture.

Global distribution
After a few days the effects of the nuclear disaster could be seen worldwide, although of course
extremely diluted: the global system of measure points registered radioactive iodine and
cesium in the atmosphere.

The release of medium and highly radioactive contaminated water (directly and through the
groundwater) into the Pacific has already resulted in measurable exposure of marine
organisms: fishing of sand eels near the affected coast has been forbidden, but the radioactive
particles are also spread and absorbed by algae, mussels, fish and crabs.

Evacuation
 Already on the second day of the disaster, all people were evacuated from a 20-km
radius around the nuclear power plants.
 On day 5, it was decided that everyone in the area between 20 and 30 kilometers
around the plant were to stay inside.
 On March 25, a ‘voluntary evacuation’ of the zone up till 30 kilometer was advised.

Unfortunately most of the people were evacuated to regions north-west of Fukushima - the
area with the highest contamination.

Around 164.000 people were evacuated from the area around the damaged reactors. Some of
them were able to stay with relatives or in hotels, but by far most of them have – for several
months – lived in major sports and exhibition halls, where they slept on the ground. In the
meantime 72.000 container units have been built for the evacuees. Even about 5 years after the
disaster 118.000 people are still evacuated - with a very unclear future.

Effects /diseases/health
Compared to the deaths caused by the natural disaster (earthquake and tsunami) the direct
cases of deaths by the man-made reactor disaster in Fukushima have been very low.

 During the explosion at reactor 1, four workers were injured.

 At the explosion at reactor 3, eleven workers died.
  One clean-up worker died of circulatory failure.

Of the tested workers nearly 2000 were found to be contaminated with a radiation dose above
100 mSv – a dose which causes radiation related diseases. Six workers were contaminated with
doses from 309 mSv to 678 mSv.

What main lessons are learned from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident?

Because of the basic assumption that nuclear power plants in Japan were safe, there was a
tendency for organizations and their staff not to challenge the level of safety and this resulted
in a situation where safety improvements were not introduced promptly.

Based on the lessons of the accident, the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear
Safety adopted the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety. This declaration includes principles to
prevent accidents with radiological consequences and to mitigate such consequences, including
6 main axes:
1. Improvement of severe accident management provisions and guidelines ;
2. Re-evaluation of site specific external natural hazards and multi-unit events ;
3. Enhancement of power systems ;
4. Additional means to withstand prolonged loss of power and cooling for the removal of
residual heat;
5. Strengthening of measures to preserve containment integrity
6. Improvements of on-site and off-site emergency control centers.

In particular, the assessment of natural hazards needs to consider the potential for their
occurrence in combination, either simultaneously or sequentially, and their combined effects
on multiple units of a nuclear power plant.