Dampierre Nuclear Power Plant
The Dampierre nuclear power plant is located in the town of Dampierre-en-Burly (Loiret), 55 km upstream of Orleans and 110 km downstream of Nevers, it uses water from the Loire for cooling.
| Dampierre Nuclear Power Plant | |
|---|---|
 The Dampierre NPP | |
| |
| Country | France |
| Coordinates | 47°43′59″N 2°31′0″E |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | 1974 |
| Commission date | March 23, 1980 |
| Owner(s) | EDF |
| Operator(s) | EDF |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Site elevation |
|
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 4 x 937 MW |
| Nameplate capacity | 3748 MW |
| Capacity factor | 75.0% |
| Annual net output | 24,629 GW·h |
| External links | |
| Website | Official website |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
Approximately 1,100 people work at the site.
Seismic risk
According to a report by the Nuclear Safety Authority in October 2002, certain functions providing backup cooling for the reactor could not be ensured in the event of an earthquake.
Incidents
On 2 April 2001, during a refueling outage of unit 4, an operator made a mistake in following the correct loading pattern for the different fuel rod assemblies (of which 30 % were MOX fuel). The reloading operation was stopped and the core completely unloaded. The incident was initially classified at Level 1 of the INES scale, but reclassified as Level 2 by France's nuclear safety authority in 2007.
On the night of 9 to 10 April 2007, reactor No. 3 went on emergency standby and remained so throughout the night; it was supplied with emergency power by an emergency generator. EDF triggered an emergency plan to 22h10. Throughout the night, teams acted in emergency mode, the reactor No. 3 having been deprived of its external power. The emergency generator worked well. The ASN has established a national crisis with the support of the IRSN. EDF and DSC lifted the crisis the following morning at 8:15. Following this incident, the No. 3 reactor remained shut down for several weeks to correct the problem.
