Mühleberg is history
Since December 20, 2019, the Mühleberg nuclear power plant has been history: On this date, BKW took the nuclear power plant off the grid after 47 years of operation. Now a decommissioning process lasting many years will begin.
Immediately after the decommissioning of Mühleberg the dismantling will be tackled. According to the Bern-based energy company, this will take around 15 years. The nuclear power plant will remain a nuclear facility for a long time to come, subject to strict radiation and fire protection regulations. Based on the plan, the aim is to have transported the fuel elements from the storage pool to the interim storage facility in Würenlingen by 2024. From 2025, all remaining plant components that have come into contact with radioactivity will be dismantled. According to BKW, the highly radioactive plant components will be dismantled and packaged underwater in the reactor building. If everything goes according to plan, Mühleberg will not be free of radioactive material until the end of 2030. The process, which will take several years, is here can be viewed. The Ensi oversees nuclear safety and security during the decommissioning of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant (see here).
Expensive decommissioning
According to the latest cost study from 2016, the total costs for decommissioning and disposal amount to 3 billion Swiss francs, of which 80% are already covered, according to BKW. The remaining 20 percent will be incurred until 2126 and will be covered by further fund contributions and plant income.
The dismantling of all five nuclear power plants in Switzerland and the interim storage of the radioactive material in the Zwilag in Würenlingen will consume more than 24 billion Swiss francs, according to the latest official estimates.
Power composition
The Mühleberg nuclear power plant produced about 5% of Switzerland's total electricity requirements annually. Since its commissioning on November 6, 1972, the power plant has supplied around 130 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity.
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFO), around 68% (2016: 62%) of the electricity from Swiss sockets came from renewable energies (2017 statistics, data on electricity labeling): 60% from large-scale hydropower and around 7% from photovoltaics, wind, small-scale hydropower and biomass. 15% came from nuclear power and about one percent from waste and fossil fuels. For 16% of the electricity supplied, the origin and composition could not be verified, the SFOE said.
Swissolar points out that the Mühleberg nuclear power plant produced just under 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually. The photovoltaic systems installed in Switzerland today achieve an annual production of 2.4 billion kWh, i.e. at least 80 percent of Mühleberg's lost production.
Those who reply to the friends of solar technology that their production is intensive, especially in the sunny months, but low in the cool seasons, receive an answer from another energy sector: With wind energy, Switzerland has a reliable, secure and domestic renewable source of winter electricity. Two-thirds of this electricity production occurs in the winter months because the winds blow more frequently and more strongly then, says Isabelle Chevalley, president of Suisse Eole and National Councilor. This means that wind energy ideally complements solar and hydroelectric power, as these two energy sources produce less than usual during the heating season. Chevalley also points out that wind power is significantly cheaper today than electricity from new nuclear power plants.
A sense of proportion in objections
Suisse Eole also emphasizes that the wind energy industry has done its homework: The 2020 wind energy targets of the energy strategy could be achieved, and those for 2035 could even be exceeded. "But unfortunately, wind energy projects are being delayed, sometimes massively, by objections from individuals and some environmental associations," regrets Reto Rigassi, managing director of Suisse Eole. "This is in clear contradiction to the decisions of the municipalities: Since 2012, 19 of 22 municipalities have spoken out in favor of concrete wind energy projects in their area." However, he said he is optimistic that legal proceedings will accelerate following the upcoming court decisions by the Federal Supreme Court, among others. At the same time, however, Suisse Eole is calling on the environmental associations to keep a sense of proportion when it comes to objections and, together with the industry, to give more impetus to the implementation of the energy turnaround in Switzerland.
View to the near abroad
The latest figures from Germany show that the expansion of wind energy is an important pillar of the energy transition: there, the share of wind power has increased from practically 0% around 20 years ago to over 26% in 2019. This means that in Germany, wind energy has relegated electricity generation from lignite to second place among the most important sources of electricity. In Austria, the share of wind energy has risen from practically 0% to around 11% over the past 20 years. (rs)
Chernobyl is still measurable in Switzerland today
The National Alarm Center (NAZ) operates its own radioactivity monitoring network (NADAM). 76 probes distributed throughout the country transmit the current measured value to the NEOC every ten minutes. When a certain threshold is exceeded (1000 nano-sieverts per hour [nSv/h]), an alarm is automatically triggered.
The daily average values (daily mean values) in Switzerland varied between 80 and 260 nano-sieverts per hour, depending on the location, according to the NEOC. This is primarily due to differences in natural radiation. On the one hand, the geological composition of the soil is decisive, on the other hand, the intensity of cosmic radiation. This increases with increasing altitude above sea level. The share of artificial radiation is only a few percent at all NADAM stations. This artificial part comes mainly from the reactor accident in Chernobyl in 1986 as well as from nuclear weapons tests in the 1960s, according to the NAC website.
Measuring network around the nuclear power plants
The Nuclear Safety Inspectorate operates the measurement network for automatic dose rate monitoring in the vicinity of nuclear power plants (MADUK). The local dose rate is measured at a total of 57 points within a radius of about 5 km around each nuclear power plant. The MADUK network thus serves for small-scale monitoring of external radiation around the nuclear power plants. Of course, this network also has an alarm system. The data and any alarm messages flow directly to the NEOC.
