BERN — The Swiss government on Wednesday recommended to parliament that the country's five nuclear power plants should not be replaced as they age, leaving them to be phased out by 2034.
The move, to be accompanied by a switch to more renewable energy, follows Switzerland's decision to suspend plans to replace its nuclear power stations in the wake of the Fukushima accident in Japan in April.
Swiss electricity companies, Axpo and BKW Energy, are submitting plans to replace the country's oldest nuclear plants with two new facilities.
The firms confirmed on Thursday they would be filing an initial application with the Federal Energy Office for licences to replace two reactors at Beznau in canton Aargau and Mühleberg in canton Bern.
DOETTINGEN, Switzerland - The Swiss atomic energy plant Beznau 1 will be shut down for 12 hours on Saturday so two valve seals in the plant's non-nuclear section can be replaced.
The plant's operating company Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke AG says the interruption will cause a visible collection of steam to be released from the non-nuclear part of the center.
Global Insight, December 14, 2007, Matthew Hall
Swiss energy groups Axpo and BKW have established a joint company to carry forward plans to build two new 1,600MW nuclear power plants in the country. The new plants are to be located at Beznau and Meuhleberg, where existing nuclear plants are due for decommissioning. The joint company, Resun, has indicated it will lodge planning applications by the end of 2008. The permitting process is expected to take four or five years, followed by several years of construction work, meaning the plants are not scheduled to be commissioned until after 2020. Axpo has estimated the plants will cost between 5 billion and 6 billion Swiss francs ($4US.4 billion-$5US.3 billion) to build.
Switzerland has issued a new decree to address excess funds for nuclear decommissioning and waste disposal, the Swiss Energy Office said on Monday.
The decree will take into account the longer-expected lifetime of nuclear power plants from 40 to 50 years, which has left excess sums totalling around CHF 600-700 million (EUR 363-423 million) in the funds. These sums must now be returned to nuclear power plant operators. The total cost of decommissioning and waste disposal for Switzerland's five nuclear power plants was estimated at CHF 13.7 billion in 2001, the majority of which (CHF 11.8 billion) was allocated for the disposal of waste. By the end of 2006, around CHF 4.4 billion had accumulated in the funds.
