3 Mar (NucNet): Swiss utility and nuclear operator BKW-FMB Energie AG has told the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ESNI) that it will permanently shut the 373-MW Mühleberg nuclear station on 20 December 2019, provided that legal conditions necessary to begin immediate dismantling are implemented, the company said yesterday. BKW said the information provided to ESNI was necessary to satisfy requirements made in December 2015 by the regulator concerning the unit’s decommissioning. ENSI asked BKW to submit plans for “safe technical operation” once power production ends at the facility. ENSI said BKW must submit “plans and analysis” for “basic safety goals” for the period following the end of power production and before decommissioning work begins, including the cooling of fuel in the reactor vessel, unloading the fuel, and storage and cooling in the used-fuel pool before the fuel assemblies are transferred away from the site. In January 2015 ENSI approved upgrades proposed by BKW for the continued operation of Mühleberg until 2019. BKW received a limitless operating licence for Mühleberg, but then announced in late 2013 that the station would be permanently shut down in 2019 instead of the planned 2022 because of “uncertainty surrounding political and regulatory trends”. Mühleberg, a boiling water reactor, began commercial operation on 6 November 1972.
