Source: Energy & Management Powernews, June 28, 2022
The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant is back on the grid after being overhauled. The focus was also on testing the steam generator heating tubes. New fuel rods were no longer used.
The three-week revision program at the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant (GKN II) included about 2,000 individual activities, according to the operator EnBW. In addition to routine work on various mechanical and electrical systems, this also included several maintenance measures on large components and larger systems. For example, there were tests on the turbine, generator and a high-pressure preheater in the turbine building, as well as on several transformers.
As previously reported, all of the approximately 16,400 heating pipes of the four steam generators were also tested again. Already in 2018, in part significant wall thickness weakenings had been detected here. "The inspection results of the steam generator heating pipes again show that the measures we initiated in 2018 continue to have the desired effect. Accordingly, the Ministry of the Environment and the experts it commissioned have confirmed the integrity and safety of the steam generators and approved the restart of GKN II," explained Christoph Heil, who as managing director of EnBW Kernkraft GmbH is responsible for GKN II.
According to the power plant operator and the Ministry of the Environment of Baden-Württemberg, a slight weakening of the wall thickness was detected in 35 heating tubes during the current inspection. They had been stabilized and sealed as a precautionary measure and were no longer in operation.
During the overhaul, no new fuel elements had been inserted into the reactor pressure vessel - unlike in previous years. "Rather, the reactor was equipped with the existing fuel assemblies in such a way that electricity production is possible until the end of the legally defined operating time," a statement from the energy company said. And, "This was the last overhaul before the final shutdown of the power plant, which will take place no later than Dec. 31, 2022, according to the Atomic Energy Act." The company also said it expects to receive permission to dismantle the plant this year. The goal is to start as soon as possible after the final shutdown.
There have already been several statements from EnBW and the other operators of the last nuclear power plants - Preussen Elektra (Isar II near Landshut in Bavaria) and RWE (Emsland in Lingen, Lower Saxony) - that for them the chapter of nuclear power is over. There is no interest in a further enterprise, particularly since also no fuel elements are available any longer.
On weekend there had been expressions of a speaker of the Stuttgart Ministry of the Environment, GKN II could be operated theoretically with 50% achievement to February 2023 further - which was classified however then as "purely hypothetical". It was not considered necessary to extend operation.
GKN II
GKN II is a pressurized water reactor with an electrical output of 1,400 MW. The plant started operation in 1989 and produced more than 11 billion kWh of electricity in 2021. The power operation of GKN II will end at the end of 2022 at the latest. Unit I at the Neckarwestheim site (GKN I) has been shut down since 2011 and has been dismantled since 2017.
Further information on the 2018 to 2021 revisions is available in a summary report from the Environment Ministry. It is to be updated in the next few days with the results from 2022.
Author: Günter Drewnitzky
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