After maintenance work, the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Bavaria is scheduled to go back on line this Saturday. “Everything went as planned, a precision landing,” said a spokeswoman for the operator PreussenElektra on Friday. The kiln in Essenbach was taken off the grid on October 21. At that time, the operator had assumed that the work would take about a week. First, the Bavarian radio had reported.
The repairs should enable the nuclear power plant to continue operating into the coming year. On October 19, the Federal Cabinet decided to clear the way for continued operation of Isar 2 and two other nuclear power plants until April 15, 2023. The Greens and the FDP in particular had gotten caught in a day-long argument about how to deal with the German nuclear power plants until Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke the word.
So-called pressurizer pilot valves, which are responsible for releasing gases and steam, were renewed during the work. This maintenance was last done in October 2021. According to PreussenElektra, however, Isar 2 can only be operated until March with the fuel elements currently in use. 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 window is planned for the end of January or beginning of February, said a spokeswoman for the operator RWE on Friday of the German Press Agency in Hanover. 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.