Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant: Unit 2 back online after maintenance

Karlsruhe. Since the weekend, Unit 2 of the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant (KKP 2) has been online again following annual maintenance. During the past few weeks, general testing and maintenance duties were performed and 44 of the 193 fuel elements were replaced.

‘We are very pleased with how the maintenance work went,’ summarises Horst Janisch, Head of the Unit 2 plant. The main large individual projects included the inspection of one of the four main coolant pumps, the hydraulic pressure test conducted on two of the four steam generators and maintenance performed on one of thee three low-pressure turbines. The maintenance team completed a total of more than 4,000 individual tasks. ‘Our team received excellent support from about 1,200 employees of manufacturers and specialist companies,’ adds Horst Janisch.

The maintenance work was supervised by the Baden-Württemberg Environment Ministry and was monitored on behalf of the Ministry by assessors of the TÜV, the KeTAG (Kerntechnik-Gutachterarbeitsgemeinschaft Baden-Württemberg) and the MPA (Staatliche Materialprüfungsanstalt, Stuttgart). Once the work had been accepted, the Environment Ministry approved the recommissioning of the plant.

Unit 2 of the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant is a pressurised water reactor with an electrical output of 1,458 megawatts. The plant was commissioned in 1984 and produced more than eleven-and-a-half billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2006.