France’s EDF reconnected its 1.5 GW Chooz-1 nuclear reactor back to the national electricity grid on Friday, around two weeks after the unit was taken offline due to concerns over water flow thresholds of the river Meuse.
Nuclear power plant operator EDF on Sunday said reactor-1 at its Chooz nuclear station ramped up to maximum power production on Sunday after shutting it down during the night of October 10-11 in accordance with the cross-border agreement between France and Belgium regarding water flow thresholds of the Meuse.
“The favorable crossing of these thresholds on October 26, 2018 allowed the restarting operations of the production unit No.1,” EDF said.
According to the French-Belgian agreement, when the 12-day rolling average of the daily downstream flow of river Meuse falls below 22 cu m/second, one production unit must be shut down.
The water flow thresholds in the Meuse allow Belgian users (industrialists, tourism stakeholders, local authorities and so forth) to have a sufficient water supply at all times for the operation of their facilities or activities. Under the agreement, if the flow of the Meuse falls below these thresholds, measures are taken to limit the operation of French industrial facilities, and thus maintain a level of flow sufficient for the own uses of Belgian users, EDF said on October 11.
At 1055 GMT Monday, total nuclear power generation in France stood at 45.4 GW, grid operator RTE data shows.
Source: S&P Global Platts