15 Dec (NucNet): Switzerland's Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) has asked the owner and operator of the Mühleberg nuclear station to submit plans for “safe technical operation” once power production ends at the facility in 2019. ENSI said BKW-FMB Energie AG (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”. The single 373-megawatt boiling water reactor began commercial operation in November 1972. BKW plans to upgrade the emergency cooling pumps at the plant, as well as installing a new emergency reactor cooling water system and reinforcing the emergency cooling system for the used fuel pools.
