Over the weekend the nuclear power station at Leibstadt was stopped, according to the broadcaster RTS.
© Ed Francissen | Dreamstime.com
At 2:16am on Sunday one of the reactors at the nuclear power station of Leibstadt was automatically stopped in response to the malfunction of a pressure regulator.
After the shutdown the reactor was in a stable state with no increases in levels of radioactivity, according to the company in a press release on 12 May 2019.
On Wednesday, the company said the reactor had gone back on line the night before at 2:35am.
A similar automatic shutdown occurred on 24 April 2019. On both occasions the problem was identified as an erroneous pressure measurement.
The company attempted to solve the problem by replacing a defective amplifier board. After the problem recurred on 12 May 2019 the complete transmitter was exchanged.
The reactor is now producing electricity again.
Opened in 1984, Leibstadt, in the canton of Aargau, is Switzerland’s youngest and most powerful nuclear power plant. It takes cooling water from the Rhine not far from the German city of Waldshut-Tiengen. It is Switzerland’s largest most expensive nuclear power station and produces around 14% (2014) of Switzerland’s net electricity consumption. Its planned decommissioning date is 2034.
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