Switzerland has switched off the Mühleberg power plant, owned by energy group BKW. Initially scheduled to be permanently shut down in 2022, the power plant has been closed earlier because of the uncertainty surrounding political and regulatory trends. The 372 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR) came onstream in 1972 and is the first Swiss nuclear reactor to be decommissioned.
The dismantling of the power plant will take place from January to October 2020. Nuclear fuel elements will be removed in 2024 and radioactivity will be eliminated in 2031. A possible reassignment of the site is not planned before 2034. Decommissioning costs (CHF 927m, i.e. €852m) and the waste storage costs (CHF1.4bn, i.e. €1.3bn) will be fully covered BKW, which made contributions to the Federal Decommissioning Fund.
In September 2018, the Swiss Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (DETEC) has approved plans by the power utility BKW to decommission the Mühleberg nuclear power plant located near Bern (Switzerland) at the end of 2019. BKW announced the decommissioning plan in 2013 and submitted it to the Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) in 2015.
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