Neckarwestheim (dpa/lsw) - Block II of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant (Heilbronn district) was taken off the grid on Saturday for the annual safety check and maintenance work. It was the last revision before the power plant was finally shut down at the end of the year, said the Karlsruhe energy company EnBW.
According to EnBW - unlike in previous years - no new fuel elements will be used in the reactor pressure vessel during the revision. Rather, the reactor is equipped with the existing fuel elements in such a way that electricity production is possible until the end of the legally defined term.
Around 2,000 individual activities are pending, including turbines, generators and a high-pressure preheater in the machine house and on transformers.
The pressurized water reactor, which went into operation in 1989, has an output of 1400 megawatts. According to the information, the plant produced more than eleven billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year.
Power operation of GKN II will end by the end of 2022 at the latest. After that, the dismantling of the plant should begin. Block I at the Neckarwestheim site (GKN I) has been shut down for good since 2011 and has been dismantled since 2017.
