Mühleberg nuclear power plant 7 Temporary shutdown for planned maintenance work
Bern (ots)
BKW Inc. plans to carry out scheduled maintenance work on Mühleberg nuclear power plant (KKM). This necessitates a temporary shutdown of the plant, starting on Friday 24 May and ending provisionally on Sunday 26 May 2013. The planned work includes replacing the shaft sealing in a circulation pump.
The shaft sealing in the affected pump had already been replaced during the 2012 annual overhaul and, as a precautionary measure, during the temporary shutdown in January 2013. Monitoring of the components shows that another preventive replacement is necessary due to the slight indications of erosion on the rotating sealing surfaces. The plan is to install a new type of seal with a different material composition during the 2013 annual revision. Due to lengthy delivery times, the seal cannot be replaced during the forthcoming temporary shutdown.
The work cannot be performed while the plant is in operation. The production loss due to the temporary shutdown amounts to around 32 Gigawatt hours. As things stand at present, the plant will be repowered on 26 May 2013.
The supervisory authority has been informed of the planned work.
Contact:
Antonio Sommavilla
antonio.sommavilla@bkw-fmb.ch
031 330 51 07