Chooz Nuclear Power Plant

Chooz Nuclear Power Plant
Official name	Centrale Nucléaire de Chooz
Country	France
Location	Chooz, Ardennes
Coordinates	50°5′24″N 4°47′22″E
Status	Operational
Construction began	1960
Commission date	15 April 1967
Decommission date	1991 (Chooz A)
Operator(s)	EDF
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Framatome
Cooling towers	2 × Natural Draft
Cooling source	Meuse River
Power generation
Units operational	2 × 1560 MW
Make and model	Alstom
Units decommissioned	1 × 320 MW
Nameplate capacity	3120 MW
Capacity factor	70.6%
Annual net output	19,306 GW·h
External links
Website	www.edf.fr/120786i/Accueil-fr/EDF-Nos-Energies/-nucleaire/les-centrales-nucleaires/Chooz/presentation.html
Commons	Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Chooz Nuclear Power Station (French: Centrale nucléaire de Chooz) lies in the municipality of Chooz in the Ardennes department, France, on the Meuse River in a panhandle protruding into Belgium, between the French city of Charleville-Mézières and the Belgian municipality of Dinant, near the comune of Givet.

Three nuclear reactors have been built on the site, Chooz A, Chooz B1 and Chooz B2. Chooz A was permanently shutdown in 1991 and is still undergoing the decommissioning process since 2007.

As of 2022, the plant employed around 1200 operators.

The Chooz reactors were a source of neutrinos for the Chooz neutrino oscillation experiment; a new experiment, Double Chooz, was also operating nearby.

Chooz A

Chooz A was an early pressurized water reactor (PWR) design by Westinghouse, built and operated by French (EDF) and Belgian (SENA) grid operators. It was shut down in 1991 after an operational life of 22 years. The containment building of this unit was underground.

Decommissioning was authorised in 2007. After preliminary work, decommissioning of the reactor pressure vessel began in 2016. As of 2022, vessel’s internal equipment was being dismantled under water.

Chooz B1 and B2

Two units of the N4 reactor design are in operation, Chooz B1 and Chooz B2. Designed for a net power output of 1450 MWe, power was uprated to 1500 MWe in 2003. This was the highest nameplate capacity for any reactor design worldwide until the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China began operation. The Taishan plant is an EPR design reactor with a net power output of greater than 1,600 MWe per reactor.

Reactors