Framatome, in collaboration with Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service (GNS), and as part of the UfG consortium led by Uniper Nuclear Services, has been awarded a contract by BKW to dismantle and package the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) at the Mühleberg nuclear power plant in Switzerland. The scope includes the RPV head and insulation. Work on site will start at the end of 2025 and the total mass dismantled during this project will be approximately 270 tons.
The Mühleberg plant is being dismantled in three decommissioning phases. The first phase was completed in September 2023 when all the plant's fuel elements were removed. The second phase ends with the lifting or clearing of controlled zones, while the third phase includes work to demonstrate that the installation is no longer a source of radiological hazard.
Plant owner BKW submitted its application for the second decommissioning phase of Mühleberg to the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate in late June 2022. During that phase, all remaining plant components that have come into contact with radioactivity will be dismantled, treated and cleaned. These include, for example, the reactor pressure vessel, parts of the containment and the fuel element storage pool that is no longer required.
Uniper Nuclear Services formed the UfG consortium for the dismantling, disassembly and packaging the Mühleberg’s RPV. The UfG dismantling concept includes the mechanical pre-dismantling into segments of the RPV in its current position. This is followed by thermal post-dismantling and packaging for storage. Within the consortium, Framatome is responsible for the pre-cutting of the RPV, i.e. cutting the cylindrical section into rings, as well as all dismantling of the control rod drive mechanisms.
The Mühleberg plant - a single 373 MWe boiling water reactor unit- began operations in 1972 and was shut down on 20 December 2019. Dismantling operations began on 6 January 2020. Mühleberg is the first nuclear power plant in Switzerland to be decommissioned.
