Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Station: Block II Back on the Grid after Revision
An important pillar of energy supply in Baden-Württemberg
Karlsruhe. Block II of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power station (GKN II) has been back on the grid since today, 26 October 2011 after the annual revision. Testing and servicing work has been carried out in the past weeks, technical projects have been implemented and fuel elements have been replaced. During the revision, around 1300 additional employees from manufacturing and specialised companies have supported the nuclear power station revision crew. The whole team managed to complete around 3000 individual tasks.
"With completion of the revision, Neckarwestheim II can once again make an important contribution to the grid stability and supply protection in Baden-Württemberg", explains Christoph Heil, Technical Director of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power station. "The facility in Neckarwestheim reliably covers the electricity needs of around 3 million private households in Baden-Württemberg around the clock. With the revision and our extensive modernisation management, we ensure safe operation of the power station at the highest international level."
The revision program has been successfully implemented
"The implementation of our program of tasks worked very well", sums up Gerd-Josef Engel, Manager of Block II. "Some of the work included inspection work on one of the four steam generators and replacing the pipelines in two of the four secondary water cooling circuits. We subjected the feed water tank to an internal test. One of the three feed water pumps and one of the three main condensate pumps have been given a general overhaul. We also connected the new traction electricity inverter to the high voltage grid."
The revision work took place under the supervision of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Industry
and was accompanied by auditors from TÜV and KeTAG (Baden-Württemberg auditors consortium for nuclear technology) on behalf of the Ministry. After approval of the work, the Ministry agreed to the facility being restarted.
Block II of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power station is a pressurised water reactor with an electrical output of 1400 megawatts. The facility went into operation in 1989 and produced around eleven billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the year 2010.
Block II is operated by EnBW Kernkraft GmbH (EnKK). EnKK operates the nuclear power stations in Neckarwestheim and Philippsburg as well as the Obrigheim nuclear power station which is currently being taken out of service.