Switzerland has five nuclear power plants: Beznau I & II, Mühleberg, Gösgen and Leibstadt. In addition to the nuclear power plants, three research reactors are in operation: at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Würenlingen, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Lausanne and the University of Basel. And finally, the national central interim storage facility for radioactive waste (ZWILAG) at Würenlingen is also monitored by ENSI.
For the second time since the Fukushima accident in 2011, power plant operators have demonstrated that their plants are capable of withstanding an extremely rare, severe earthquake.
The reactor pressure vessel is enclosed by the containment as the third barrier. This consists of a steel primary containment and a concrete secondary containment.
With its pipelines, shut-off valves and other components, the cooling circuit, together with the reactor pressure vessel, is the second barrier for trapping radioactive substances
The reactor pressure vessel, together with the water’s cooling circuit, is the second barrier for trapping radioactive substances.
The fuel pellets are filled into metal tubes. Together with the nuclear fuel matrix, the cladding tubes are the first barrier for trapping radioactive substances in nuclear power plants.
The nuclear fuel is pressed into pellets and compacted using the sintering process before use in nuclear power plants. This process transforms the nuclear fuel into a ceramic material, which is able to retain the fission products that arise during operation in the nuclear fuel matrix.
The barrier concept aims to trap sources of radiation in nuclear facilities across several levels. Similar to the layers of an onion, independent barriers ensure that the risk from sources of radiation are minimised for people and the environment.
Heat is generated in the reactor as a result of nuclear fission. To guarantee optimum cooling of the fuel rods, their cladding tubes must always be covered with a film of water. If they are not completely covered with water in specific areas, this is referred to as “dryout”.
In 2008, general licence applications were submitted for three new nuclear power plants in Switzerland: the Mühleberg replacement nuclear power plant, the Beznau 1 & 2 replacement nuclear power plants, and a new construction project at Niederamt in the canton of Solothurn. For the purposes of the general licences, ENSI began by examining whether the […]
