nuclear-news

Early shutdown for nuclear power plant – court orders

Swiss court orders nuclear plant offline in 2013  By Katharina BartMar 7, 2012  ZURICH, March 7 (Reuters) – A Swiss court ruled that Switzerland’s Muehleberg nuclear power plant must go offline next year for security reasons, according to a judgment made public on Wednesday.

“The state of the nuclear shell, the assessment of the plant’s resistance to withstand earthquakes which is not complete, and lacking cooling possibilities independent of the river Aare allow operations of Muehleberg only up to mid 2013 at the most,” the federal
administrative court said in a ruling handed down March 1.

The ruling backs residents near to the plan in their bid to have the court overturn a previous decision by environment, transport energy and communication department UVEK to grant a longer operational period…

.. Muehleberg, built in 1972, is one of the plants frequently cited by opponents of nuclear energy as ripe for mothballing. The government decided to scrap plans to build new nuclear reactors after Fukushima shook public confidence in the industry. Until now, it had not planned to shut existing power plants prematurely…. http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8E771P20120307

March 8, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Switzerland