France shuts down two nuclear reactors over fire at Chinon NPP — authority

Two reactors have been shut down after a fire broke out at the Chinon nuclear power plant (NPP) in western France, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said in a statement on its website.

A transformer of Reactor 3 caught fire in a non-nuclear sector of the NPP in the early hours of Saturday.

"The loss of main external electrical power to Reactor 3, following this fire, resulted in the automatic shutdown of the reactor," the statement said.

It was reported that after the fire had been extinguished, Reactor 4, which shares a water collection system with Reactor 3, was also temporarily shut down to avoid water leaks into the environment.

The Chinon NPP has four operating reactors, each with a capacity of 900 MWe, and its other three were shut down between 1973 and 1990. The operating water-water reactors were built between 1982 and 1987. In 2023, the Chinon NPP generated 17.24 TWh of electricity, which is equivalent to 5.4% of France’s total nuclear power production.

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