Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant

Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear Power Station Cattenom
Location of Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant in France
Official name	Centrale Nucléaire de Cattenom
Country	France
Location	Cattenom, Lorraine
Coordinates	49°24′57″N 6°13′5″E / 49.41583°N 6.21806°E / 49.41583; 6.21806Coordinates: 49°24′57″N 6°13′5″E / 49.41583°N 6.21806°E / 49.41583; 6.21806
Status	Operational
Construction began	1979
Commission date	November 13, 1986 (November 13, 1986)
Operator(s)	EDF
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Framatome
Cooling source	Moselle River
Cooling towers	4
Power generation
Units operational	4 x 1,362 MW
Make and model	Alstom
Nameplate capacity	5,448 MW
Capacity factor	71.4%
Average generation	34,084 GW·h
Website Site c/o EDF

The Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in Lorraine in the Cattenom commune, France, on the Moselle River between Thionville (10 km upstream) and Trier (80 km downstream). It is close to the city of Luxembourg (35 km) and Metz (40 km).

The site consists of 4 pressurized water reactors that were all built between 1979 and 1991 and have an electric output of 1300 MW each. The plant is a relatively modern and large nuclear power plant. In 2006 it produced the third most electricity (34 TWh) of the nuclear plants in France behind Gravelines (38.5 TWh) and Paluel (34.9 TWh).

The plant employs about 1200 regular employees and about 1000 more during outage times.

The station received its ISO 14001 certification in 2005, and should have its ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 in 2007.

The site uses 4 separate cooling towers which use 890,000,000 m³ (3.1×10¹⁰ cu ft) of water from the Moselle annually. Additionally, a water reserve on site, Lake Mirgenbach, was created. The creation of this lake has led to the flooding of the subterranean portions of Ouvrage Kobenbusch, part of the Maginot Line. In 1985 an artificial lake was also created in the Pierre-Percée valley in the Vosges.