E.ON Halts Sixth of Seven Oldest German Reactors; RWE’s Biblis to Follow
E.ON AG (EOAN), Germany’s largest utility, halted the sixth of seven nuclear power plants Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered closed for safety checks, leaving RWE AG (RWE) due to shut the last of the seven as early as today.
E.ON’s 1,345-megawatt Unterweser reactor stopped at 3:35 a.m. Berlin time today, according to data the company published on its website. The state of Hesse, where RWE’s 1,167-megawatt Biblis A plant is located, has said it would issue an order for the facility’s halt by today. Nuclear stations can take several hours to shut down.
The E.ON halt brings the total nuclear capacity reduction since March 15, when Merkel ordered the nationwide safety review of the country’s oldest reactors to run through June, to 4 gigawatts. Two of the seven plants were offline when Merkel announced the plan. The rest equals 25 percent of the 20.7 gigawatts installed over Germany’s 17 reactors.
GERMAN REACTORS TO HALT UNDER SAFETY CHECKS: UNIT OWNER MW OUT RETURN Isar 1 E.ON 878 March 17 Mid-June* Unterweser E.ON 1,345 March 18 Mid-June* Biblis A RWE 1,167 March 18-19 May not Return*** Biblis B RWE 1,227 Feb. 25 Unknown** Brunsbuettel Vfall/E.ON 771 July 18 ‘07 Unknown** Neckarwest’ 1 EnBW 840 March 16 May not Return*** Philippsburg 1 EnBW 926 March 16 Unknown**
* Company estimate ** Determined by state/federal government *** Determined by company and or state government
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
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