Consequences of the earthquake in the Rhone valley: ASN has checked correct application of the verification procedures

On 11 November 2019, at about 12h, an earthquake struck the Rhone valley. ASN mobilised its personnel to conduct a review with all the licensees operating nuclear facilities in the region. It contacted the national and local public authorities, more particularly the Prefect’s offices of the Drôme and Ardèche départements.

The facilities concerned are the nuclear reactors of the Cruas-Meysse and Tricastin nuclear power plants, as well as the Orano facilities in Tricastin. According to the licensees concerned, no damage has been identified.

On the Orano site in Tricastin, certain facilities were temporarily shut down, although not on safety grounds.

ASN asked EDF to verify whether the values recorded exceeded the thresholds beyond which a more in-depth examination of the facilities is needed, requiring shutdown of the reactors. This is not the case for the Tricastin NPP, which is further from the earthquake’s epicentre. However, one of these thresholds was reached for the Cruas-Meysse NPP, which led EDF to decide to shut down the reactors on this site. ASN will examine the conditions in which it will be possible to restart these reactors.