Operational experience and failure statistics of nuclear power plants with LWR reactors in the Federal Republic of Germany

The article starts by reporting on the operational behaviour since start-up (gross power generation, degree of utilization, availability, non-availability periods, outage times), radioactive emissions, accidents, and radiation exposure of the plants own personnel and of outside personnel. The following points are summarized: 1) Operational experience with German nuclear power plants has shown that the diversified and redundant design chosen guarantees safe operation of these nuclear power plants. 2) Disturbances and failures were mainly found in the non-nuclear part of the plant. The causes of the problems resulting in long outages were found, the problems were solved, relief measures were taken, and the weak points were avoided in later plants. 3) Radioactive emissions into the environment and personnel exposure were far below the permissible limits. (orig./HP)