PreussenElektra obtains licence to decommission and dismantle Unterweser nuclear power plant
The demolition of Unterweser nuclear power plant (KKU) can now start. The Lower Saxon Ministry of the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection has granted the licence for PreussenElektra to decommission and demolish its nuclear power plant pursuant to Section 7 (3) of the Atomic Energy Act. Today, Dr Guido Knott, Chairman of PreussenElektra's Board of Management, and Plant Manager Gerd Reinstrom personally accepted the notice from Lower Saxon Environment Minister, Olaf Lies.
PreussenElektra plans to start dismantling work later this month. This makes KKU the second of PreussenElektra's plants shut down in 2011 to be approved for demolition. Isar 1 was the first of the eight German nuclear power plants shut down in 2011 to obtain this license in January 2017. This means that three out of the eight nuclear power plants owned by PreussenElektra are now in the process of demolition: nuclear dismantling of Stade NPP is well advanced and should be finished in approximately four years' time, nuclear dismantling of Würgassen was completed in 2014.
Comprehensive know-how ensures safe dismantling
"We have comprehensive expertise in the dismantling of power reactors from the Stade and Würgassen dismantling projects. We are now able to apply the knowledge and experience we gained during these projects and this will help us to carry out the upcoming dismantling project safely and with minimal impact upon the environment," says Board Chairman, Dr Guido Knott.
PreussenElektra submitted the application for permission to decommission and dismantle KKU in May 2012. During the course of the licensing procedure, a detailed safety report was drawn up, as well as a brief outline plan and an environmental impact study. These were available for public inspection for two months. All objections to the project were then thoroughly examined during the subsequent four-day public hearing, which took place in February 2016.
Plant Manager Gerd Reinstrom adds: "The fact that we now have the licence in our hands is thanks to the efforts of many colleagues over the last six years. We are delighted that we are now able to start putting our planned preparatory work into practice and use our detailed knowledge of the plant gained over many years plus our decommissioning experience from the Würgassen and Stade sites."
Plants are dismantled from the inside out
In the next step, systems that are no longer required will be decommissioned and dismantled and logistical preparations made within the controlled area so that a waste processing centre can be set up for dismantled components in the annulus of the reactor building. Preparations will also be made for dismantling the reactor pressure vessel internals. In parallel, removal of the fuel elements still left in wet storage will continue.
Transparent dismantling procedure
"We estimate that dismantling work inside the controlled area will take approximately 13 years. During this period there will be no outward sign of the dismantling work going on inside the reactor building. For this reason we think it is important to keep the local population informed on an ongoing basis as to how the dismantling work is progressing. We want to create as many opportunities as possible for personal exchange," continues the plant manager. "We are therefore also supporting the Wesermarsch dialogue process initiated by Wesermarsch District Authority and regularly invite the press, politicians and local residents to events."
The licence will also be published on the Lower Saxon Ministry of the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection website: (www.umwelt.niedersachsen.de).
Background
Unterweser NPP operated from 1978 until 2011. The pressurized water reactor had a gross installed capacity of 1,410 MW. It was one of seven nuclear power plants shut down in Germany in March 2011 when it lost its commercial operating licence under the 13th Amendment to the Atomic Energy Act. By the time it ceased commercial operation in March 2011, KKU had produced more than 305 billion kWh of electricity. At this point, this was a unique worldwide achievement: no other single-unit plant had ever produced as much power as KKU. Currently there are around 180 PreussenElektra employees working on the site.
PreussenElektra operates Brokdorf (Schleswig-Holstein), Grohnde (Lower Saxony) and Isar 2 (Bavaria) nuclear power plants to generate power in Germany. The Isar 1 (Bavaria) and Unterweser (Lower Saxony) plants, which were shut down in 2011, are in the process of being dismantled. Nuclear dismantling of Stade NPP (Lower Saxony) is well advanced and that of Würgassen NPP (North Rhine-Westphalia) has already been completed. It is the aim of PreussenElektra's roughly 2,000 employees to contribute to climate-friendly, reliable and affordable power production in Germany up until 2022 and to guarantee safe and reliable dismantling of the decommissioned plants.
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