Chooz Nuclear Power Plant
The Chooz Nuclear Power Station 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.
The first reactor, Chooz A, was an early pressurized water reactor design by Westinghouse, built and operated by French and Belgian grid operators. It was shut down in 1991 after an operational life of 22 years. The containment building of this unit was underground.
Two units of the N4 reactor design are currently 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.
The plant employs around 700 full-time workers.
The Chooz reactors were a source of neutrinos for the Chooz neutrino oscillation experiment; a new experiment, Double Chooz, is currently operating nearby.Reactors
