Environmental safety and monitoring
Management approach
GRI 103
(103-1, 103-2, 103-3)
Relevance
The nuclear power plants in which Alpiq holds shares are obligated to take account of safety aspects in a comprehensive, consistent and efficient way as well as to take measures to ensure they are implemented. This must be done while taking into account ethical, economic and social principles as well as legal provisions. Both Alpiq and the operators of the nuclear power plants consider responsibility for people and the environment a central task. The focus is on the health and safety of the public, employees and third-party companies.
Management approach
Since 2010, the nuclear energy key performance indicators (reportable events, energy availability, dose values) have been communicated by the operators of the nuclear power plants exclusively by calendar year to ensure they can be compared with the official reports from ENSI and WANO (World Association of Nuclear Operators). There is no additional conversion or communication for other periods of time (water year), as this prevents any contradictory data and misinterpretations when compared with the reports sent to ENSI and WANO. The data for the calendar year 2021 will be published by ENSI in the Oversight Report 2021 in mid-2022.
Guideline ENSI-G15 defines the radiation protection limit values that apply in Switzerland to employees and to the population surrounding a nuclear power plant. These are monitored in accordance with guideline ENSI-B09 and reported to ENSI in accordance with guideline ENSI-B03.
Assessment
The nuclear power plants in Switzerland are subject to the strictest safety standards. Reportable events at nuclear power plants do not mean that measurable quantities of radioactive substances have been released. They simply indicate that there were irregularities in operation that needed to be observed and reported in accordance with guideline ENSI-B03. In the nuclear power plants in which Alpiq holds shares, there were no accidents with a measurable release of radioactive material in the reporting year.
The number of events that were reported in accordance with guideline ENSI-B03 by KKG and KKL, respectively, in 2020 are listed in the following table.
Number of reportable events in 2020 in accordance with guideline ENSI-B03:
|
Number |
INES 0 1 |
INES 1 1 |
INES 2 1 |
|
Gösgen nuclear power plant (KKG) |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
Leibstadt nuclear power plant (KKL) |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) is a tool for communicating the safety significance of nuclear and radiological events to the public. 0 is the lowest and 7 is the highest level. For further information see the website of International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea.org).
For further information about these events, see the ENSI Oversight Report 2020.
Handling water and waste water is defined in specific terms for each nuclear power plant in rules of delivery that are checked and approved by ENSI. The delivery data for 2020 and 2021 is publicly available from ENSI (ANPA-EMI data).
No Swiss nuclear power plant in which Alpiq holds a share causes significant heating of a body of water. Both KKG and KKL are cooled by a cooling tower and not by an adjacent river. The water in the cooling towers comes from the rivers; the reinjection of cooling water introduces some heat, but not in a significant way. In hot summer weather with very high river temperatures, nuclear power plants reduce their output to stay below the legal limits.