Swiss nuclear plants declared earthquake safe

(Reuters) - Switzerland's nuclear power plants could withstand a serious earthquake, the country's nuclear safety regulator said on Monday in a study prompted by the Fukushima disaster.

"Swiss nuclear plans would stand up to an earthquake that might happen once in 10,000 years at the most," said Georg Schwarz of the Federal Nuclear Security Inspectorate.

The study also said dams protecting the Muehleberg plant from a possible flood should hold firm in an earthquake.

READ MORE...

Swiss nuclear plant outages

FRANKFURT, April 18 (Reuters) - The following table lists
planned maintenance outages and unscheduled stoppages at Swiss
nuclear power plants.
Maintenance usually takes place in the summer months and
operators at two plants have given tentative dates beforehand.
But operators of the Beznau and Leibstadt reactor blocks said
they will not issue information ahead of plant closures.
Ownership of the plants is detailed under (1,2,3...)

New entries are marked ***

CURRENT OUTAGES
PLANT MW TIME PERIOD LEAD OPERATOR
None

PLANNED OUTAGES IN 2012
Goesgen 970 Early June for 3 weeks Alpiq (2)
Muehleberg 355 1st half Aug - 1st half Sept BKW-FMB(4)
Leibstadt 1,145 no advance information Alpiq (3)
Beznau 1 365 no advance information Axpo (1)
Beznau 2 365 no advance information Axpo (1)

PREVIOUS OUTAGES IN 2012
Beznau 2 365 March 23-April 15 Axpo (1)
Muehleberg 355 Feb 8 BKW-FMB(4)

Switzerland - Ministry appeals Mühleberg nuclear plant ruling

The energy and environment ministry, which licences Mühleberg nuclear plant,
is to appeal a Federal Administrative Court decision to close the plant next
year.

The move follows last week’s announcement by the Bern plant’s operator BKW Energy
that it intended to appeal the ruling “in order to obtain the legal certainty
required for a decision on investments”.

On Wednesday the ministry said the judgment had called into question the
delineation of roles and responsibilities between itself and the Swiss Federal
Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, despite the fact that the two “administer their
tasks independently from each other and ensure a strict separation of their
competences”. “The swift and definitive resolution of these questions is
in the interests of Swiss energy policy and the public,” the ministry statement
said. The 1972 Mühleberg plant, one of five in Switzerland, supplies
five per cent of the country’s energy needs.

The court said on March 7 its licence should be taken away in June 2013 on safety grounds, after local opponents had lodged a complaint about the indefinite extension of the licence
granted by the environment ministry at the end of 2009. Switzerland’s
heavy reliance on nuclear energy came under intense pressure in the wake of
Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster a year ago, with the government ultimately
pledging to abandon nuclear power by 2034.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57401035/regulators-plan-another-neb-nuclear-plant-meeting/

BERN, Switzerland—The Swiss operator of one of Europe's oldest commercial nuclear reactors says it plans to shut the plant by 2022.
BKW Energie AG said Tuesday that the Muehleberg plant will continue to provide electricity for ten years despite a Swiss court ruling earlier this month that the reactor's license should expire at the end of June 2013.
The company has said it will challenge the ruling at Switzerland's supreme court.
Muehleberg began operation in 1972.
Earlier this year, it was temporarily shut down after routine maintenance caused a feedwater cooling system to stop working. No radioactivity was released.
Switzerland gets about 40 percent of its power from five nuclear reactors. The country plans to phase out nuclear power by 2034.
LINK

Switzerland: Future of nuclear plant on shaky ground

The Mühleberg atomic plant near Bern will lose its operating licence at the end of June 2013 on security grounds, the Federal Administrative Court has ruled.

The court accepted a complaint by local opponents of the plant against the indefinite extension of its licence by the environment ministry, granted at the end of 2009.

The 1972 plant, one of five in Switzerland, is run by BKW Energy and supplies five per cent of the country’s energy needs. Last September it was restarted after three months of annual checks and safety improvements.

Switzerland’s heavy reliance on nuclear energy came under intense pressure in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster almost exactly a year ago, with the government ultimately pledging to abandon nuclear power by 2034.

The phase out plan was based on a reactor lifespan of 50 years but this week’s legal turn of events may mean a more rapid and costly exit.

Last year the government estimated that gradually phasing out nuclear power in Switzerland would cost SFr2.2-SFr3.8 billion ($2.4-$4.1 billion).

Weak points

In its judgment on Mühleberg, the court said various factors imposed a limit on the plant’s viability, including the condition of the reactor’s core shroud, which has fissures in it.

Other security questions cited were the inconclusive evaluations on security in the event of an earthquake and the absence of a cooling system independent of the River Aare.

Since December 2009, Mühleberg's licence has been open-ended provided it met national nuclear safety requirements. The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate is the national regulatory body with responsibility for the nuclear safety and security of Swiss nuclear facilities.

The court noted that the issue of security was too important to be Ensi’s sole responsibility. The nuclear inspectorate did not wish to comment on the judgment, according to the Swiss News Agency, referring questions to the environment ministry. The ministry said it needed to analyse the judgment before taking a position.

A BKW spokesman also said the company intended to closely study the 44-page judgment before deciding whether to appeal. The court’s decision can be appealed to the Federal Court in Lausanne.

Green power

The court’s decision has been hailed as a victory by anti-nuclear campaigners who swiftly called for the same action to be taken for Switzerland’s and the world’s oldest nuclear power plant Beznau.

Greenpeace called it “a stage victory for the safety of the Swiss population”, while the anti-nuclear organisation Swiss Energy Foundation (SES) said the verdict was a slap in the face for the federal authorities, whose work had clearly been called in question.

To be able to carry on operating the plant after mid-2013, BKW will have to submit a complete maintenance concept to the environment ministry along with an application for a licence extension specifying how long it plans to keep the plant working, the court said.

A BKW spokesman told Swiss television that work on such a concept was already under way since last year, the first part of which had been submitted to the nuclear inspectorate in August 2011. The inspectorate imposed a series of extra safety measures on Swiss power plants after the Fukushima disaster.

However the lawyer for the group that pursued the case against BKW – more than 100 local residents and an environmental group – said the decision spelled the end of Mühleberg. “I do not think that BKW is going to make such an investment within a year,” Rainer Weibel told Swiss television.

Shaky ground

With the future of Mühleberg now on shaky ground, the focus will shift to the Beznau I plant in canton Aarau, commissioned in 1969.

Critics say safety issues prove Beznau’s time is up, claiming the emergency power supply is unreliable, the reactor cover has corrosion problems and the steel container has cracks.

As for the country’s energy needs, electricity consumption is expected to continue to grow steadily until 2050 despite energy efficient appliances and other measures, according to recent predictions from the Federal Energy Office.