Europe's oldest nuclear power plant in Switzerland to shut in 2033

Switzerland's Beznau nuclear plant, one of the oldest in the world, will keep running until 2033, its operator announced on Thursday, as environmentalists argued it should be shut down "immediately".

Energy company Axpo, which runs the plant in northern Switzerland that first began operating in 1969, said in a statement that it had decided "to secure the operation of the Beznau nuclear power plant until 2033".When it is finally taken offline, the installation will be 64 years old, the company said in a statement. Switzerland has placed no maximum life span on its nuclear power plants.

Since the start, it said it had invested more than 2.5 billion francs in upgrading and modernising the two units. The Swiss Energy Foundation said setting the cut-off date was "logical", after Swiss voters in June approved a law accelerating the development of renewable energies as part of efforts to attain carbon neutrality by 2050.