© Maurice Fick / RTL
As the Cattenom nuclear power plant near the Luxembourg border has been testing its emergency protocols all week long, our colleagues from RTL Infos spoke to operators on the ground to find out what would happen if every single backup system were to fail.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011 left a lasting mark and led to stronger protections for nuclear plants against external threats, along with better equipment to ensure water and electricity supplies in times of crisis. But how would the Cattenom plant across the French border cope if the unimaginable happened?
From Monday to Thursday, unusual teams and equipment have been moving in and around the Moselle power plant. A rare exercise – conducted only once every three or four years – is underway. The scenario? An "earthquake of very great magnitude, far greater than the most significant historical earthquake" ever registerd in the region, explains Jérôme Le Saint, director of the Cattenom plant.
Such an extreme event would disable all backup systems and even knock out some of the ultimate safety measures added since Fukushima. These include "high-wind protections" to shield facilities during a tornado, and "ultimate backup diesel generators" to keep critical safety systems running.
The central challenge in any major disaster would be cooling the reactor core, explains Le Saint: "To avoid radioactive releases into the air, the fuel must always be cooled to prevent it from melting."
Even if earthquake damage made access to the plant impossible, the Nuclear Rapid Action Force (FARN) would step in. Its resources, explains Olivier Le Roux, head of FARN’s crisis management unit, would "provide water, supply electricity to all of the plant's backup equipment, and deliver air". This would ensure the reactor pool is continuously cooled and prevent it from boiling.
"An exercise like this required six months of preparation to be as effective as possible", Le Roux added.
Once the plant director files a crisis report, followed by orders from the operator Electricity of France (EDF), FARN is mobilised, according to Le Roux: "The first teams would arrive within 12 hours, and all teams would be available to the plant within 24 hours."
To reach the plant "at all costs" in a crisis, FARN has 300 specially trained nuclear professionals and substantial equipment: 45 "high-mobility" lorries, five barges to move materials over water, 18 four-wheel vehicles, Super Puma helicopters, and a fleet of remotely operated robots to go where humans cannot.
For this week's drill at Cattenom, FARN deployed 75 personnel and only part of its equipment. On the Mirgenbach reservoir, teams practiced transporting relief staff and materials. "FARN must be able to intervene even if all roads are cut off and staff cannot get to the plant", stressed Le Roux.
The main goal of the exercise is to test coordination between plant teams, FARN, and the SDIS 57 fire and rescue service – and to put crisis management to the ultimate test.
