Protecting people, property and the environment, on and around the site, returning the installation to a safe state, mobilising on-call personnel, informing the authorities, the general public and the media are the priorities in the event of a nuclear accident, as set out in the emergency plans of the power station, the prefecture and EDF. Every five years, all French nuclear power plants must put them into practice in a simulation. For the Cattenom plant the last such exercise took place in October 2017.
Day 1: triggering of emergency plans
This is a means of “testing all the measures planned by the public authorities and by the EDF in the event of an accident”, summarises the prefect of Moselle in a press release.
Participants will only discover the accident scenario--drawn up by the EDF and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN)--at the start of the day on 11 May. The management of the Cattenom power plant will have to act accordingly and activate its internal emergency plan. The same applies to the other concerned actors--the Moselle prefecture, Météo France Metz, the 112 municipalities of the perimeter, as well as Germany and Luxembourg. For the moment, only 16 of the French municipalities have agreed to take part in the exercise: Audun-le-Tiche, Basse-Ham, Boust, Buding, Cattenom, Distroff, Elzange, Guénange, Hagen, Hayange, Hettange-Grande, Klang, Koenigsmacker, Oudrenne, Richemont and Volmerange-les-Mines).
The grand duchy would be directly affected in the event of a serious accident. A radiological assessment cell and a crisis cell could be necessary, the prefecture said. French national operators will also be called upon, to support the deployment of emergency plans, for example the mission of support for the management of nuclear risks (MARN) or EDF.
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The exercise will employ the Cattenom power plant simulator, used by technicians to train in crisis management. The prefect will also have to work on announcing protection measures to the population, even though the latter will not be involved in the exercises. The training will therefore not be visible in the field, except for the presence of the IRSN or the departmental fire and rescue service around the plant.
Day 2: transfer of the population to Metz
The second day, independent of the first will affect the municipalities. They will have to manage the transfer of people located in a zone defined by the scenario as risk areas to the Metz metropolis. Here too, in addition to the crisis cells and decision-making chains, communication will be tested, with, for instance, media pressure exercises.
An assessment of the exercise will be carried out with the national and local players involved. Its conclusions may lead to a modification of the crisis organisation, with the aim of making it more effective.
The notion of simulated accident can range from a technical failure that damages the installation to the destruction of a reactor, as in Chernobyl 36 years ago, says the IRSN on its website.
The exercise comes shortly after the announcement of a corrosion phenomenon at Cattenom, confirmed by the EDF, which says that technical investigations are continuing although the two aren’t necessarily connected as Cattenom was due its five-year test.
The Cattenom power station produces 30 TWh of electricity per year, i.e. the consumption of 75% of the Grand Est region. It employs 1,500 EDF employees and 700 permanent contractors.
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.