Mühleberg, in canton Bern, will go offline in 2019
Keystone
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) has reinforced its message to nuclear power plants that they should beef up their defences against earthquakes.
This content was published on
2 minutes
swissinfo.ch
Having warned the five plants last summer that they would have to improve their safety margins, ENSI on Monday gave detailsExternal link on what would be expected of them, together with a four-year timetable. This includes new methods to measure the seismic resistance of equipment designed to control the effects of an earthquake.
“Plant operators are required to provide further proof, in three stages, by the end of 2020, that their plants can withstand even an extremely unlikely powerful earthquake,” the inspectorate stated.
ENSI director general Hans Wanner explained that new models to determine the safety of power plants were sparked by the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
“This is precisely why we are so keen to ensure that nuclear plant operators regularly update their comprehensive seismic safety cases and that these then comply with the latest scientific evidence – especially if this evidence suggests that stricter requirements are now necessary,” he said.
Even the Mühleberg power plant will have to comply with the new requirements despite being mothballed in 2019. The Swiss government decided in March 2011 to decommission all five power plants between 2019 and 2034.
In August of last year, Greenpeace, other NGOs and local residents close to the Beznau station in canton Aargau threatened legal action after citing serious environmental risks associated with the two plants.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Inspectorate calls for further safety measures
This content was published on
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) has demanded that some of the country’s nuclear power stations step up their safety margins to make sure they are adequately flood and earthquake-proof.
Nuclear critics threaten legal action over Beznau plant
This content was published on
A group of Swiss residents and environmental organisations are threatening to file a legal complaint against the federal nuclear inspectorate, urging it to close the aging Beznau nuclear power station. They say the plant cannot resist a powerful earthquake.
This content was published on
The environmental group said the weak spots in the pressure vessel – found during regular maintenance work by the operators of the Beznau 1 station and reported last week – made it necessary to examine the other four nuclear reactors in Switzerland. “We want at least an independent panel of experts to advise the Nuclear…
15 years needed to dismantle nuclear reactor near Bern
This content was published on
The fact that 450 people showed up for the first of three informational events shows “how important it is to maintain contact with the community”, said Suzanne Thoma, CEO of the BKW GroupExternal link, the reactor’s operator and one of Switzerland’s largest energy companies. The process of dismantling and removing the parts of the reactor…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.