Debris halts Blayais 3 nuclear reactor again-EDF

(Updates with background)

PARIS, March 30 (Reuters) - EDF (EDF.PA) said on Monday it had stopped its 900-megawatt nuclear reactor 3 at the Blayais facility in southwestern France on March 29 due to plant debris in the nearby Gironde river.

"We stopped the reactor 3 as a precautionary measure because the water quality was not good enough to be used," an EDF spokeswoman said.

EDF halted the 3,600-megawatt Blayais plant, which provides six percent of the country's nuclear capacity, twice in February after two big storms caused plant debris to block the pumping stations filters.

Power stations rely on water for cooling and take steps to prevent debris from damaging the pumps.

EDF shut all four reactors at the plant for the first time on Feb. 12 and it took EDF between two days an a week to restart all four reactors.

When the plant stopped the second time on Feb. 25, EDF waited until the high tides of March 10-13 caused currents to clean the debris. (Reporting by Mathilde Cru and Muriel Boselli; Editing by Keiron Henderson)