Axpo submitted today a project plan (road map) to ENSI, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, outlining procedures for the characterisation and evaluation of the indications in the base material of the Beznau 1 reactor pressure vessel. ENSI will review this plan in collaboration with a group of international experts.
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) requires the Beznau nuclear power plant to provide proof that the reactor pressure vessel is safe. In an interview, Georg Schwarz, the Director of the Division for Nuclear Power Plants and Deputy Director of the ENSI, explains the importance of carrying out an ultrasonic examination.
The operator Axpo was able to plausibly demonstrate to the ENSI that even if one were to assume that the reactor pressure vessel of Beznau 2 had similar material defects to those in Beznau 1, the safety operation of the reactor pressure vessel is still sufficiently guaranteed.
While carrying out ultrasonic measurements of the reactor pressure vessel of the Beznau 1 nuclear power plant the operator detected flaw indications that require evaluation. It submitted a corresponding report to the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI yesterday.
The Swiss nuclear power plants (NPP) Beznau and Gösgen are required to perform standardized safety reviews of the base materials in their reactor pressure vessels to check for possible manufacturing flaws. Through this requirement, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI is implementing a recommendation issued by the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA).
All of Switzerland’s nuclear power plants will cope with an extreme flood of the sort that may occur on average once every 10,000 years, in addition to their ability to cope with other hazards. Even if the external power supply fails at the same time as the flood occurs, the plants can be brought into a safe condition. All the plants are clearly in compliance with the applicable limits.
