PARIS (Reuters) - French utility EDF will temporarily shut down all four reactors at its Tricastin nuclear power plant after regulator ASN identified flaws in a canal dike bordering the plant.

ASN said in a statement that while the dikes are being strengthened, there was a risk of flooding which could lead to a major accident at the plant, which is located along the Rhone river in the heart of France’s Provence wine and tourism region.

ASN’s technical arm IRSN said in a note that the Tricastin nuclear plant is located about six metres below the Donzere-Mondragon canal and that a major earthquake could cause its gravel dikes to liquefy.

This could flood the Tricastin reactors and cause a meltdown of the nuclear fuel in the reactors and the spent-fuel cooling pools, in a nuclear accident similar to the one in Fukushima, Japan in 2011.