The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a largest nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated 200 km north of Sofia and 5 km east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant. The construction of the plant began on 6 April 1970.

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant currently manages 2 pressurized water reactors with a total output of 1920 MWe. Units 5 and 6, constructed in 1988 and 1993 respectively, are VVER-1000 reactors.

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant previously operated four older reactors of the VVER-440/230 design, but under a 1993 agreement between the European Commission and the Bulgarian government, Units 1 and 2 were taken off-line at the end of 2003. A 1995 report by the United States Department of Energy had listed those units among the world's "ten most dangerous reactors". On the 21st of October 2010, licenses for the shutdown reactors were transferred to Bulgaria state radioactive waste enterprise DP RAO, signaling the formal beginning of decommissioning work.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Units 3 and 4, originally licensed for operation until 2011 and 2013, respectively, underwent substantial safety improvements and, after rigorous inspections, received positive reviews from the IAEA in 2002, and from the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) in the following year, concluding that "no technical reasons exist for the early closure of units 3 & 4". Backed by these findings, the government had hoped to convince the European Commission to allow a postponement of the agreed pre-accession shutdown; from a legal and political standpoint, however, this proved untenable. Units 3 and 4 were taken out of operation in the final hours of 2006, immediately prior to the country's accession to the European Union.

82 metric tons of its spent fuel were sent to a repository in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai during 2001 and 2002. In 2008, officials at the power plant announced their intention to use CONSTOR storage casks for this purpose.

Prior to the shutdown of units 3 and 4, Kozloduy NPP produced 44% of Bulgaria's electricity supply; as of March 2006, Bulgaria exported about 14% of its electricity production.

Pressure to restart

In January 2009 Bulgaria's president suggested that Unit 3 be restarted in light of the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine and resulting power shortages in the region.^[7] Under the conditions of its Accession Treaty Bulgaria may request temporary derogation from its commitments in the event of serious economic difficulties arising within the first three years of membership in the union.

The Chinon Nuclear Power Plant (French: Centrale nucléaire de Chinon) is near the town of Avoine in the French Indre et Loire département, on the Loire river (approximately 10km from the town of Chinon). The power station has seven reactors, of which three are now closed.

The nuclear power station employs approximately 1,350 full time workers. The operator is the French company Électricité de France (EDF).

The site housed three of the first generation of French plants of a Magnox-type (UNGG) design. Since then, four of the first French PWR series have been built. The site uses four cooling towers that were built with a low profile for the specific purpose of not blocking the views of the Loire.

The Chinon Nuclear Power Plant is on the large side for a French plant. It feeds approximately 6% of the national electricity demand of France.

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant Reactors

Unit	Type	Net power	Total power	Construction start	Commercial operation	Shut down
Chinon A1	Magnox-Reactor	70 MW	80 MW	01.02.1957	01.02.1964	16.04.1973
Chinon A2	Magnox-Reactor	210 MW	230 MW	01.08.1959	24.02.1965	14.06.1985
Chinon A3	Magnox-Reactor	480 MW	480 MW	01.03.1961	04.08.1966	15.06.1990
Chinon B1	PWR	905 MW	954 MW	01.03.1977	01.02.1984	2024 planned
Chinon B2	PWR	905 MW	954 MW	01.03.1977	01.08.1984	2024 planned
Chinon B3	PWR	905 MW	954 MW	01.10.1980	04.03.1987	2027 planned
Chinon B4	PWR	905 MW	954 MW	01.02.1981	01.04.1988	2028 planned

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant
Data
Country	France
Operator	EDF
Built	1957
Start of commercial operation	February 1, 1964
Reactors
Reactors active	4 (3,816 MW)
Reactors shut down	3 (790 MW)
Power
Total power generation in 2006	23,925 GW·h
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	24,056 GW·h
Net generation	555,762 GW·h

The Tricastin Nuclear Power Center is a collection of sites run by Areva and EDF located in 4 different communes Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Pierrelatte in Drôme, Bollène and Lapalud in Vaucluse, and four departments (Drome (26), Vaucluse (84), Gard (30) and Ardeche (07)) on right bank of the Channel of Donzère-Mondragon (diversion canal of the Rhone River) between Valence (70 km upstream) and Avignon (65 km downstream).

The site houses 4 Pressurized water reactors of 915 MW each, which were built mostly in the 70s and brought online in the early 80s. These reactors produce about 25 TWh/year, or 6% of France's electricity, but about 2/3rds of that goes right back into the Eurodif Uranium enrichment factory. The close proximity of the power source and usage of the power allows for smaller transmission losses to occur, which is done at 225 kV.

Spent fuel is transported by train to the reprocessing plant, just as the new fuel is transported to the plant by train.

Fire response

Tests on July 2, 2004 by the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (Nuclear Safety Authority) confirmed that response to a fire would take a time of 37 minutes.

Cooling water

During the 2003 European heat wave from July 12 to July 22, the maximum dumping temperature of 27°C into the canal was exceeded on several occasions, totalling about 44 hours.

Incidents

In July 2008, 18,000 liters (4,755 Gallons) of Uranium solution containing natural uranium were accidentally released. Due to cleaning and repair work the containment system for a uranium solution holding tank was not functional when the tank filled. The inflow exceeded the tank's capacity and 30 cubic meters of Uranium solution leaked with 18 cubic meters spilled to the ground. Testing found elevated uranium levels in the nearby Gaffière and Lauzon rivers. The liquid that escaped to the ground contained about 75 kg of unenriched uranium which is toxic as a heavy metal while possessing only slight radioactivity. Estimates for the releases were initially higher, up to 360 kg of natural uranium, but revised downward later. Ground and surface water tests indicated that levels of radioactivity were 5% higher than the maximum rate allowed. In the near vicinity and above ground, the local watchdog group CRIIRAD has detected unusually high levels of radiation.

French authorities have banned the use of water from the Gaffière and Lauzon for drinking and watering of crops. Swimming, water sports and fishing were also banned. This incident has been classified as Level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

In July 2008, approximately 100 employees were exposed to radioactive particles that escaped from a pipe in a reactor that had been shut down. Additionally, a nuclear waste leak that apparently had remained undiscovered since 2005 spilled into a concrete protective shell in Romans-sur-Isere. Areva, who owns the site, ensured that the leak had not caused harm to the environment, but the issue sparked discussion about an old French army terrain, where nuclear waste was deposited in shielded dumps. The layer of dirt covering the waste is reported to have been thinned due to wind and rain erosion, directly exposing nuclear waste material to open air. Also, the speed with which the Tricastin incident was reported to the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (8 hours) and subsequently to local authorities (another 6 hours) is subject of ongoing discussions. The European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs may send inspectors to the sites to investigate recent events further.

Other implications following the incidents resulted in a drop in the sale of wines from the Tricastin area. Acting on the wishes of the wine growers to change the name of the appellation to something without "Tricastin", to avoid being associated with the nuclear power plant, in June 2010, INAO signalled its intention to allow a name change from Coteaux du Tricastin AOC to Grignan-Les Adhemar effective from the 2010 vintage.

The Cruas Nuclear Power Station is a Nuclear power plant located in Cruas and Meysse communes, Ardèche next to the Rhône River in France. The site is 35km north of Tricastin Nuclear Power Center and near the town of Montélimar.

The site contains 4 pressurized water reactors of 900 MW each, totaling 3600 MW total. The construction began in 1978, the reactors were built between 1983 and 1984.

The power station accounts for 4 to 5% of the electric energy production in France, and 40% of the annual usage by the Rhone-Alps area. The site employs about 1,200 workers and has an area of 148 hectares. Cooling water comes from the Rhône river.

On 1 December 2009 reactor 4 was shut down after vegetation blocked the intake of the cooling system. The nuclear safety authority Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) classified the incident as level 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale

In 1991 it was decided by the owners of the plant to carry out a Mural project on the cooling towers focusing on the topic of ecology. Author of the mural on the Tignes dam, Jean-Marie Pierret was selected to design the painting, 9 mountaineers helped to actually paint the structure. The painting reflects the basics of Water and Air and is titled Aquarius, and was inaugurated in 2005. It took 8,000 working hours and 4,000 liters of paint to complete the project.

Cruas Nuclear Power Plant
Data
Country	France
Operator	EDF
Built	1978
Start of commercial operation	April 29, 1983
Reactors
Reactors active	4 (3,824 MW)
Power
Total power generation in 2006	23,241 GW·h
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	24,244 GW·h
Net generation	513,867 GW·h

Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Sosnovy Bor in Russia's Leningrad Oblast, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, some 70 kilometers to the west of the city centre of Saint Petersburg. It consists of four nuclear reactors of RBMK-1000 type. These reactors are identical to reactors No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Four units of VVER-1200 type are under construction at the same site to replace the current RBMK reactors ( Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant II).

In 1975 there was reportedly a partial meltdown in Leningrad reactor Unit 1 that released 1.5 MCi into the environment.

In March 1992, an accident at the Sosnovy Bor nuclear plant leaked radioactive gases and iodine into the air through a ruptured fuel channel. This was the first accident at the station that was announced in the news media.

In December 2005, a private company reprocessing scrap metal at the facility was operating a non-nuclear smelter, which overheated and exploded spraying molten metal across a large area and starting several fires. Three workers were burned in the explosion, with two experiencing burns over 90 percent of their bodies.

On August 27, 2009 the third unit was stopped when a hole was found in the discharge header of a pump. According to the automated radiation control system, the radiation situation at the plant and in its 30 kilometer monitoring zone was normal. The plant's management refuted rumors of an accident and stated that the third Unit was stopped for a "short-term unscheduled maintenance", with a restart scheduled for 31st August 2009. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published a short notice on the 29th of August claiming a coolant leak at the plant. The problem is described as serious but without any immediate risk of radiation in the surrounding environment. The article refers to a statement by the Finnish authority Säteilyturvakeskus.

Unit	Reactor type	Net capacity	Gross capacity	Shutdown
Leningrad - 1	RBMK-1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	2018 planned
Leningrad - 2	RBMK-1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	2020 planned
Leningrad - 3	RBMK-1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	-
Leningrad - 4	RBMK-1000	925 MW	1,000 MW

Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant
Data
Country	Russia
Operator	Energoatom
Built	March 1, 1970
Start of commercial operation	November 1, 1974
Reactors
Reactors active	4 (4,000 MW)
Power
Total power generation in 2006	21,208 GW·h
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	22,327 GW·h
Net generation	655,180 GW·h
Status	Operating