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1379923740000 | Press Release

Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant: Unit II disconnected from network for annual inspection

Extensive plant security maintenance programme
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Neckarwestheim. Unit II of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant (GKN II) was disconnected from the network last Saturday for its scheduled annual inspection. Test and maintenance work, as well as several technical projects and the replacement of fuel rods will be conducted at the plant during this overhaul.

"We continue to make high safety demands of our nuclear power plants. For this reason, we have planned extensive maintenance activities again for this year's overhaul of Unit II," commented Christoph Heil, technical managing director of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. "Examples of these activities include a basic overhaul of one of the three main cooling water pumps, and work on components such as pumps and fittings – one of the four residual heat removal chains. We are also exchanging a transformer, and conducting control system-related modernisation work on one processing plant over which cleaned water is fed to the cooling tower operation."

Around 1,200 additional specialists to support the maintenance work

"The working programme for the overhaul comprises a total of more than 2,900 individual activities that are mostly possible only when the system is shut down," reports Gerd-Josef Engel, head of Unit II. "Around 1,200 additional staff from manufacturing and specialist companies will support our maintenance team in this work." The test and maintenance works will be conducted under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy Industry of Baden-Württemberg, and will be accompanied by surveyors from the TÜV inspection group and KeTAG (Nuclear Technology Surveyors Working Group of Baden-Württemberg).

Unit II at the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant is a pressurised water reactor with electric output of 1,400 megawatts. The plant was commissioned in 1989, and produced around 11 billion kWh of electricity in 2012.

EnBW Kernkraft GmbH (EnKK) operates Unit II. EnKK stands for safety in operation and post-processing, as well as in the decommissioning and dismantling, of nuclear power plants in Baden-Württemberg. In Neckarwestheim und Philippsburg, EnKK produces electricity with one nuclear power plant respectively (GKN II and KKP 2). A further plant that no longer produces electricity is located at each of the sites (GKN I and KKP 1). EnKK is currently preparing the dismantling of these shutdown plants. At the Obrigheim site, the dismantling of the nuclear power plant located there, which commenced in 2008, is making good progress.

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EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
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