Beznau nuclear power plant: Scheduled outage of Unit 1

03.05.2019 - The Beznau nuclear power plant (KKB) will take Unit 1 off grid as scheduled today, 3 May 2019, in order to perform inspection work and refuelling. This marks the end of a malfunction-free operating cycle of about 400 days.

The focus of work includes maintenance, recurring tests and inspections, as well as the commissioning of new systems. Integral system tests will also be carried out as usual. Of the 121 fuel elements, 20 will be replaced with new elements and installed in the reactor core.

The scheduled outage marks the end of a longer than average production cycle. During this cycle KKB Unit 1 produced over 3.4 billion kilowatt hours of CO2-free electricity with no malfunctions, which corresponds to the yearly electricity consumption of approx. 700,000 households in Switzerland.

At times steam will be emitted into the atmosphere from the non-nuclear section of the plant during shutdown. This does not pose any danger to human beings or the environment.

During refurbishment the approx. 450 employees at KKB will be supported by several hundred external specialists from the region as well as from Switzerland and abroad.

Simultaneously to the scheduled outage of KKB Unit 1 refurbishment work on the containment dome weather protection of KKB Unit 2 will be taken up. As a result the unit will be enclosed to ensure work safety. The project will take several months.

All work is supervised by the Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI.