France Pulls Plug on Country's Oldest Nuclear Plant ( Part 2 of 2 )

法國最古老的核電廠將吹熄燈號 ( 下篇 )

'Island of prosperity'

France's ASN nuclear safety authority has said reactors can be operated beyond 40 years only if ambitious safety improvements are undertaken.

「繁榮之島」

法國（France）核能安全管制機關（Nuclear Safety Authority，ASN）表示，反應爐只有進行重大的安全改善才得以運行逾 40 年。

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France Pulls Plug on Country's Oldest Nuclear Plant
VOA News｜Europe
June 28, 2020 01:02 AM (source)

France Pulls Plug on Country's Oldest Nuclear Plant ( Part 2 of 2 )

法國最古老的核電廠將吹熄燈號 ( 下篇 ）

June 28, 2020 01:02 AM

AFP

FESSENHEIM, FRANCE –

'Island of prosperity'

France's ASN nuclear safety authority has said reactors can be operated beyond 40 years only if ambitious safety improvements are undertaken.

In the 1990s and 2000s, several safety failures were reported at Fessenheim, including an electrical fault, cracks in a reactor cover, a chemistry error, water pollution, a fuel leak, and non-lethal radioactive contamination of workers.

In 2007, the same year a Swiss study found that seismic risks in the Alsace region had been underestimated during construction, the ASN denounced a "lack of rigor" in EDF's operation of the plant.

Without Fessenheim, France will still have 56 pressurized water reactors at 18 nuclear plants generating some 70 percent of its electricity. Only the United States, with 98, has more reactors, but France is by far the world's biggest consumer of nuclear energy.

In January, the French government said it would shut 12 more reactors nearing or exceeding the 40-year limit by 2035, when nuclear power should represent just 50 percent of the country's energy mix in favor of renewable sources.

At the same time, the EDF is racing to get its first next-generation reactor running by 2022 – 10 years behind schedule – and more may be in the pipeline.

Local mayor Claude Brender condemned the closure of the plant, which he says has helped create an "island of prosperity" in an otherwise poor part of Alsace.

The government has said workers will be transferred to other EDF sites.

'Liberation from nuclear'

At their Fessenheim home, engineer Jean-Christophe Rouaud and his wife Cecile, director of the local creche, were packing boxes ahead of moving with their two children to another town where he found work at a nuclear plant.

As the end was approaching, "people are afraid to no longer hear the machines running,"  Rouaud told AFP, and described a "sense of waste shared by all employees."

Many others will have no option but to leave their families in Alsace and work elsewhere.

Restaurant owner Laurent Schwein said the future of auxiliary businesses in the town looked dire.

"As restaurateurs, we are entering the unknown. We don't know how long the dismantling will take," said Schwein, who is also the president of the local football club which will now close with most of its young players leaving.

Fessenheimer Gabriel Weisser is one of few happy about the town's "liberation from nuclear."

"They are defending their professional lives, me my very life," he said of the plant's diehard defenders.


「繁榮之島」

法國（France）核能安全管制機關（Nuclear Safety Authority，ASN）表示，反應爐只有進行重大的安全改善才得以運行逾 40 年。

在 1990 年代和 2000 年代，費森海姆核電廠（Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant）發生了數起安全事故，其中包括電器故障、反應爐蓋龜裂、化學誤差、水汙染、燃料洩漏和員工非致命性放射汙染等。

2007 年，一份瑞士（Switzerland）研究指出，費森海姆核電廠當年在興建時低估了阿爾薩斯（Alsace）地區的地震(seismic，註 1)風險。同年，法國核能安全管制機關也公開譴責(denounce)該國電力公司（Electricite de France）在核電廠的運作上「缺乏嚴謹把關」。

除了費森海姆，法國另有 18 座核電廠、56 座壓水式反應爐，供應該國約 70% 的電力。世界上僅美國（United States）的 98 座反應爐超越法國的數量，但法國迄今為止仍是全球最大的核能消費國。

今年 1 月，法國政府表示將於 2035 年前陸續關閉 12 座即將除役或逾 40 年使用年限的反應爐，把對核能的依賴降至 50% 以下，其餘搭配其他的可再生(renewable，註 2)能源。

與此同時，法國電力公司也趕著在 2022 年啟用首座新一代反應爐。這項進度比預期落後了 10 年之久，而其他新式反應爐可能也正在籌備中(in the pipeline)。

當地市長克勞德．布朗德（Claude Brender，音譯）譴責(condemn)費森海姆核電廠的關閉。他認為，如果不是該核電廠的設立，阿爾薩斯較為貧窮的地區不會成為現今的「繁榮(prosperity，註 3)之島」。

法國政府表示，費森海姆核電廠的員工將被安排到電力公司的其他據點工作。

「從核能解放」

工程師尚．克里斯托夫．魯奧（Jean-Christophe Rouaud，音譯）和他在當地擔任托兒所主任的妻子西西莉（Cecile，音譯）在費森海姆的家中裝箱整理，準備與他們的 2 名小孩搬至另一個城鎮。魯奧在那裡的核電廠找到了新工作。

魯奧向法新社（Agence France-Presse，AFP）表示，隨著核電廠關閉的到來，「人們擔心再也聽不見機器運轉的聲音，」並描述「全體員工都因核電廠的停擺感到惋惜與感嘆。」

其他人多數別無選擇，他們必須將家人留在阿爾賽斯，獨自前往他處工作。

餐廳老闆洛朗．史威因（Laurent Schwein，音譯）表示，費森海姆核電廠的周邊行業(auxiliary businesses)前景看似岌岌可危。

史威因說道：「身為餐廳業者，我們正邁向未知。我們不知道拆解工程會進行多久。」他同時也是當地足球俱樂部的主席。俱樂部隨著多數年輕球員的離開也將關閉。

加布里埃爾．魏瑟（Gabriel Weisser，音譯）是少數對「從核能解放」感到開心的人。

他形容該核電廠的頑強捍衛者時說道：「他們正在捍衛自己的職業生涯，而我則是在捍衛自己的生命。」