The decommissioning of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant (BE) is on track. More than 300 people are actively working there, two thirds of whom already worked for the plant when it was still in operation.
It has been five years, on December 20, 2019, since BKW Energie (Bernese Motive Forces) ceased operation of this site opened in 1972. To date, 6,500 tonnes of material, out of a total of 20,000 tonnes of concrete, metals and other materials, could be dismantled and evacuated.
“We have achieved our goals,” decommissioning manager Stefan Klute told Keystone-ATS during a site visit. The work is divided into 97 projects, of which only 5% are not progressing as planned.
The frame with the switch head has been covered and will soon be exhibited in the National Museum in Zurich. And recently, the reactor control rods were dismantled by a Swedish specialist company.
Ten more years
The next step will consist of emptying the fuel element retention basin, to a depth of 12 meters. No less than 850,000 liters of water are affected.
It will also soon be necessary to evacuate the condenser, in which the steam which powers the turbine producing the energy is cooled and transformed, with the waters of the Aar,
According to BKW Energie, the site must be available from 2034 for a possible new use. At the beginning of December, Energy Minister Albert Rösti discussed the possible construction of a new power station on this site, once the work is completed.
The area is expected to be free of all radioactive material by the end of 2030. The process is proving laborious. Every single screw must be dismantled, cleaned and measured before leaving Mühleberg.
Officials distinguish between active materials and contaminated materials. The first have been irradiated and are subject to special treatment, which requires enclosing them in drums and transporting them to the intermediate depot in Würenlingen (AG).
Contaminated materials, on the other hand, are not radioactive but have been polluted through contact with fluids or gases containing radioactive particles. The contaminated parts are on the surface and can be removed and disposed of as waste.
Debate far from over
Regardless of this dismantling, the debate on energy is far from over in Switzerland. The extension until 2033 of the old Beznau power station (AG), decided recently, arouses the ire of environmentalists.
BKW Energie, for its part, has not planned to strengthen nuclear power in its energy strategy until 2030. In Bern, the emphasis is placed, for the short and medium term, on renewable energies.
In the longer term, the Bernese Motive Forces say they are “open” in terms of technology. “Atomic power plants could be part of the solution in the future, as long as society decides to achieve climate goals while guaranteeing energy supply and wanting to preserve the landscape as much as possible,” explains the company.
The boss of Axpo, Christoph Brand, however recently declared to AWP that “the construction of a new power plant of the current generation was not feasible from an economic point of view for a company. Only the State could ’employ there’.
This article was automatically published. Source: ats
Related News :