Widespread Power Outage in Spain Triggers Shutdown of French Nuclear Reactor

A widespread power outage across Spain led to the automatic shutdown of a reactor at the Golfech nuclear power plant in southwestern France. This information was reported by RIA Novosti, citing data from the French transmission system operator, RTE.

"In France, the blackout had several specific, but moderate consequences: the automatic shutdown of several power plants in southwestern France (including a reactor at the Golfech nuclear power plant)," stated the operator's website.

Furthermore, some industrial and domestic consumers connected to the RTE network also experienced outages or disruptions in their power supply.

It is noted that the power supply interruption occurred automatically to protect the local network and lasted less than 20 minutes.

According to the operator, these measures prevented the incident from spreading to the rest of Europe.

The extensive power outage occurred on April 28th at approximately 12:30 PM (13:30 Minsk time) across almost the entire territory of Spain. The disruption also affected Portugal, France, and Andorra. Due to the blackout, all railway transportation had to be halted. It also impacted the operation of public transport in cities where traffic lights were not functioning. Queues formed in supermarkets, and people had to be rescued from stuck elevators. All nuclear power plants in the country were safely shut down. The cause of the blackout is currently being investigated.