Faulty Fire Barrier at Philippsburg Nuclear Power Station
In an incident reported on August 20, 2025, a fire door at the decommissioned Philippsburg nuclear power plant, Unit 2, failed to close properly following a closure command. The affected fire door is located in a firewall outside the control area between the auxiliary building and a connecting passage.
The malfunction was traced to a malfunction in the pneumatically operated door opener. As a precaution, the door opener was disabled to ensure the door would close automatically in case of a fire.
Despite the malfunction, all other measures for fire detection and fighting in this area were fully available, making the overall safety significance of the event very low. There was no risk to people or the environment due to the incident.
The operator of the decommissioned power plant discovered the open fire door and promptly reported the incident to the relevant authorities. Events significant for nuclear safety are reported to the state nuclear regulatory authorities according to the federal uniform criteria of the External: Atomic Safety Supervisory Authority and Notification Ordinance - AtSMV.
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, a joint agreement between nuclear power plant operators and the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, was used to evaluate the event. The event was classified as category N (normal report); INES 0 (no or very low safety significance).
The goal of the notification procedure is to monitor the safety status of nuclear power plants, prevent similar errors from occurring in other nuclear power plants, and incorporate the findings into safety improvements. The competent authority for investigating the incident is the Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Regional Council).
Manual closure by firefighters would have been possible, but since the door did not close properly during the monthly inspection, it would not have functioned as designed in case of a fire. The fire door is designed to prevent the spread of fire in case of a fire.
The scale, managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is intended to provide a rapid and understandable evaluation of an event for the public. Events that cannot be classified into the scale (1 to 7) are assigned the "Level 0" based on national assessment, regardless of their safety significance.
For further information, the Ministry for the Environment, Climate, and Energy Affairs can be contacted through their Press Office or Citizen Liaison Officer. Their contact details can be found on their respective websites.
