Colmar (dpa / lsw) – The Alsatian nuclear power plant Fessenheim disposes of tons of boric acid in the Rhine side canal every year even after its decommissioning. “We will continue with the same logic in the coming years,” announced the responsible manager of the French energy company EDF, Elvire Charre, on Thursday at a meeting of a public monitoring commission in Colmar. Limit values would be complied with.
The Fessenheim power plant was shut down in the summer of 2020 after 42 years of operation. There was a lot of criticism of the old system, especially from Germany. All of the fuel elements from the pile south of Freiburg were removed last summer.
Boric acid is used in nuclear power plants and is a common chemical compound in their wastewater. Last year, six tons of boric acid were disposed of in the Rhine lateral canal in Fessenheim, which was around a third more than in the year of closure in 2020.
The much larger amount – around 16 tons – was disposed of as concentrate in 2021; so it didn’t get in the water. At the meeting, it was said that around half of the around 100 tons of boric acid at the time of the shutdown two years ago still had to be disposed of.
According to EDF, the annual limit for discharges into the Rhine lateral canal is ten tons. The local information and monitoring commission for the Fessenheim nuclear power plant is based at the Alsace European Regional Authority (CEA).