The Nuclear power station Paluel (French: Centrale nucléaire de Paluel) lies within the French town Paluel in Normandy in the Département Seine-Maritime. The nuclear power plant, which consists of four 1330 MWe class pressurized water reactors, is about 40 kilometers far away from the city of Dieppe and employs approx. 1,250 full time workers. The operator is the French company EDF. Water from the English Channel is used for cooling.

The installed total output of 5.528 GW makes it second largest nuclear power stations in France. By electrical output it is second place in France and seventh place worldwide. It feeds on average 32 billion kilowatt-hours into the public electricity grid every year.

In the past, there were problems with the cooling of the plant due to blockage of cooling water from the English Channel, which causes an automatic reactor trip.

The blockage has been caused in part by seasonally-present macroalgae, and EDF is pursuing possible solutions to prevent its entrainment with Gunderboom, Inc.

Reactors

Reaktorblock]	Net power	Total power	Construction start	Construction finish	Commercial operation	Shut down
Paluel 1	1,330 MW	1,382 MW	15.08.1977	22.06.1984	01.12.1985	2025 planned
Paluel 2	1,330 MW	1,382 MW	01.01.1978	04.09.1984	01.12.1985	2025 planned
Paluel 3	1,330 MW	1,382 MW	01.02.1979	30.09.1985	01.02.1986	2026 planned
Paluel 4	1,330 MW	1,382 MW	01.02.1980	11.04.1986	01.06.1986	2026 planned

Paluel Nuclear Power Plant
Data
Country	France
Operator	EDF
Built	1977
Start of commercial operation	June 22, 1984
Reactors
Reactors active	4 (5,528 MWth)
Power
Total power generation in 2006	34,402 GW·h
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	33,714 GW·h
Net generation	689,640 GW·h
Other details
Website Site c/o Betreibers
As of July 22, 2007

The Gravelines Nuclear Power Plant is the fifth largest nuclear power station in the world. It is located in Nord, France, approximately 20 km (12 mi) from Dunkerque and Calais. Its cooling water comes from the North Sea. The plant houses 6 nuclear reactors. Two entered service in 1980, two in 1981, and two in 1985. The site employs 1680 regular employees.

The cooling water that carries waste heat from the plant is used by a local commune of aquafarmers who raise European seabass and gilt-head breams. The warm water helps them grow faster.

• In August 2009, during the yearly exchanging of fuel bundles in Reactor-1, one bundle got stuck to the upper handling structure, stopping the operations and causing the evacuation and isolation of the reactor's building.

• In 2007, the plant experienced four separate events that qualified as Level-1 on the INES Scale.

• In 2006 when Unit-3 was taken offline for routine refueling. It was discovered that an electrical wire had not been plugged in correctly during the last outage in 2005. This too ranked Level-1 on the INES Scale.

Gravelines Nuclear Power Station
Gravelines Nuclear Power Station
Data
Country	France
Location	Nord
Coordinates	51°00′55″N 02°08′10″E / 51.01528°N 2.13611°E / 51.01528; 2.13611Coordinates: 51°00′55″N 02°08′10″E / 51.01528°N 2.13611°E / 51.01528; 2.13611
Operator	EDF
Built	1974
Start of commercial operation	13 March 1980
Reactors
Reactors active	6 (5,706 MWth)
Power
Total power generation in 2006	38,462 GW·h
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	37,610 GW·h
Net generation	864,934 GW·h