EDF : Installation of two buoys at the Blayais nuclear power station

"The downstream and upstream buoys for the monitoring of rejects from the outlet of the Blayais nuclear power station have been deployed as scheduled this summer in the Gironde estuary (infocéan N° 363).

The installation developed and implemented in less than 6 months, in co-operation, by Mobilis and nke, involves two skirt buoys of the JET5000 type moored on 2 mooring posts and prestressed chain lines to reduce the swinging radius. The mooring posts protect the buoys and sensors from the floating debris of the Gironde.

Each buoy carries a chain of 10 temperature sensors PT100 with an accuracy of 0.1°C and pressure sensors to measure the water level, as well as an RDI ADCP.

Data transmission to the supervisor of the power station is carried out over a reserved frequency in UHF and GSM that allows to communicate with the management system of the buoy.

These data not only allow real time monitoring of the diffusion of the cooling waters but will also be used to feed hydrodynamic models.

This development exemplifies the possibility to equip a buoy with multiparameter sensors, meteorological systems and other instruments such as ADCP with a TCP/IP transmission protocol."

Source Infocéan N°372 15 Sept. 2005