After the planned maintenance of valves, the Isar 2 nuclear power plant can continue to produce electricity throughout the year. The operator took the plant offline for a week. The work completed during this time went as planned.
The Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Bavaria went back online after maintenance work. The routine maintenance of the so-called pressurizer pilot valves has ended and the subsequent test has been successful, said a spokeswoman for the operator PreussenElektra. “Everything went as planned, a precision landing.” As a result of the repairs, the nuclear power plant in Essenbach in Lower Bavaria (Landshut district) should be able to continue running into the coming year.
The federal cabinet had decided that Isar 2 and two other nuclear power plants should continue to operate until April 15, 2023. According to PreussenElektra, the kiln should run at full capacity until around mid-December and then switch to plug-in operation. According to estimates by the federal government, the output of the nuclear power plant will drop to 50 percent of the previous nominal electrical output by the time the plant is finally shut down.
The nuclear power plant was taken off the grid on October 21. At that time, the operator had assumed that the work would take about a week. So-called pressurizer pilot valves, which are responsible for releasing gases and steam, were renewed during the maintenance work. This maintenance was last carried out in October 2021. The neighboring Isar 1 nuclear reactor has been in the process of being dismantled since 2017.
In order to be able to continue running until mid-April, the Emsland nuclear power plant is also to be shut down in the meantime. A time slot at the end of January or beginning of February is planned for this, said a spokeswoman for the operator RWE. The planned two-week break, which is necessary to reconfigure the fuel elements, is already mentioned in the draft for the amendment to the Atomic Energy Act.
