A nuclear reactor in Europe had to be shut down due to extreme heatwave conditions persisting in the region. Reactor 2 at the Golfech nuclear power plant in France was taken offline as high temperatures in the River Garonne, the plant’s cooling water source, approached the regulatory limit. This action was announced by the state-owned energy company EDF.
The heatwave has led France’s national weather service to issue a red alert for nine departments. The temperature of the River Garonne is projected to reach 28C. According to a 2006 decree, the river’s temperature must not exceed 28C post-discharges from the power plant. Normally, the discharged water is slightly warmer, around 0.2C, than the river water.
Reactor 2 was the sole operating unit at the Golfech site, located about 55 miles from Toulouse, as Reactor 1 has been offline for maintenance since May. Both reactors have a generating capacity of 1.3GW. EDF had previously suspended operations at Golfech on June 23 for the same reason but restarted the reactor on July 3.
A spokesperson from EDF stated that the recent weather conditions caused a considerable temperature rise in the River Garonne, leading to the shutdown of production unit No. 2 at the nuclear power station as a precaution.
During the previous heatwave at the end of June, EDF also halted operations at two other nuclear reactors in compliance with environmental regulations on river temperatures. The Copernicus Climate Change Service of the EU reported that Western Europe had its hottest June on record this year, with an average temperature exceeding the average for the past three decades by more than 3C.
Samantha Burgess, the strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, warned that in a warmer world, heatwaves would become more frequent, intense, longer-lasting, and affect wider geographical areas.