Mühleberg nuclear power plant
2015 maintenance outage begins
Bern (ots)
The Mühleberg nuclear power plant was shut down today for its scheduled annual maintenance work, which will take around four weeks.
The priorities of this year's maintenance work will be replacing 36 of the 240 fuel rods, examining the core shroud, extensive internal and external testing of the reactor pressure vessel and preventive electrical and mechanical maintenance. Periodic testing of components, fittings and systems will also be carried out.
During the 2014 maintenance work, a visual inspection of the core shroud revealed short vertical cracks along a horizontal weld. These are now being thoroughly investigated using ultrasonic testing. The cracks along a weld seam that were first detected in 1990 are also being inspected with regard to their cracking behaviour.
Implementation of the cooling water supply system that is independent of the Aare means one of the requirements of the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) of 27 January 2015 has been met.
The 345 KKM employees will be assisted by 700 external specialists. The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) will carry out various inspections during the maintenance outage.
Contact:
Gilles Seuret
media@bkw.ch
058 477 51 07