Cattenom reactor stopped for maintenance

(CS) Anyone with a view of the Cattenom nuclear power plant may have noticed that there is no steam rising out of one of the cooling towers, with one of the reactors down for maintenance.

Production was stopped at unit n°2 around 1.30am in the early hours of Saturday.

Around a third of the 193 fuel assemblies in the reactor will be replaced during maintenance works, which also includes cleaning of steam generators.

Every 18 months, one third of fuel assemblies is replaced in the reactors.

For this planned maintenance work, Cattenom relies on the expertise of around 600 additional trained staff.

Units n°1, 3 and 4 remain on the grid. A statement published by authorities Saturday did not say how long maintenance work on unit n°2 would take.