Summer Break for Swiss Nuclear Power Plants

Monthly Share of Electricity Generation and State Consumption (Average Figures, 1989–93)

ALL UCS

(VSE) – If you’re driving from Aarau to Olten in the summer and don’t see clouds of steam rising from the cooling tower of the Gösgen nuclear power plant, there’s no cause for concern. On the contrary, to ensure the safe operation of the reactor, nuclear power plants are shut down and overhauled annually by mutual agreement. Summer is the best time for this because hydroelectric power plants produce a lot of electricity then, thanks to meltwater and rain. At the same time, electricity consumption drops due to the vacation season.

During an outage, spent fuel rods are replaced and the operational integrity of all plant components is systematically checked. To do this, about three times as many people as usual work at the plant. The outage work takes an average of one month per nuclear power plant.