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.

Swiss nuclear plant operator appeals against 2013 closure

ZURICH, March 14 | Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:16am EDT

(Reuters) - The operator of a Swiss nuclear plant is appealing a decision to shut it down ahead of schedule next year, citing planned new safety measures and the high cost of mothballing it.

A Swiss court ruled on March 1 that the Muehleberg nuclear plant, operated by BKW FMB, must go offline in 2013 due to questions about its ability to withstand an earthquake and independent cooling facilities.

"BKW has decided to lodge an appeal against the decision with the Federal Court," it said in a statement on Wednesday. "A premature shutdown ... would entail significant financial and technical implications."

Following Japan's Fukushima disaster last year, nuclear plants have come under increasing public scrutiny in Switzerland, which gets about 40 percent of its power from nuclear sources.

Muehleberg, built in 1972, is one of the plants frequently cited by opponents of nuclear energy as ripe for mothballing.

BKW, which is planning to improve the plant, will submit to authorities proof of its ability to withstand a severe earthquake, and is working on cooling systems to complement the current scheme that is based on water from the river Aare.

Decommissioning Muehleberg would hit BKW's operating income by about 50 million Swiss francs ($54.36 million) per year and decommissioning and disposal funds would have to be augmented by some 450 million francs, BKW said.

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