3. Provisions adopted for French nuclear power plants

3.1 Safety objectives

The measures adopted for French nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima accident are designed to limit radioactive releases in the short, medium and long term, in the event of a sustained loss of external sources (electrical sources, heat sinks). Indeed, if no emergency back-up is rapidly operational, such a situation could lead to core meltdown and possibly, in the longer term, to the dewatering of spent fuel assemblies stored in deactivation pools.

In the event of a natural disaster of the type that occurred in Japan in March 2011, the implementation of measures to protect populations living in the vicinity of the site from possible radioactive releases would be made more difficult by the severely degraded environment. What's...