The permit to begin decommissioning and dismantling Germany’s Krümmel NPP has been issued by the head of the nuclear supervisory authority in Kiel, Andreas Wasielewski, to Ingo Neuhaus, managing director of Vattenfall’s nuclear energy division in Germany, and Krümmel NPP Director Torsten Fricke.
Krümmel was one of eight older power reactors that had their operating licences withdrawn by the federal government in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima accident as part of a political decision to phase out nuclear power. Vattenfall submitted an application to decommission and dismantle the plant, in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, in 2015.
Krümmel NPP – a single 1,260 MWe boiling water reactor – is jointly owned by Vattenfall and E.ON. The plant, operated by Vattenfall, was connected to the grid in 1983. However, it suffered a transformer fire in 2007 and, following repairs, was restarted in June 2009 only to be taken offline again the following month due to a transformer fault.
Dr Ingo Neuhaus said the plant will move from post-operating to decommissioning. “This is an important milestone on the way to a green field in place of the power plant. During the dismantling work, we can draw on the experience we have gained at the Brunsbüttel NPP. We started working there in 2019. We expect the dismantling work in Krümmel to take about 15 years.”
With the removal of the last fuel element in 2017, and the last individual fuel rods in 2019, 99% of the radioactive inventory has left the power plant. Of the remaining 1%, more than 90% is in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and its internals. The next phase of dismantling work will start with the RPV internals. A consortium of specialist companies has put together a team to undertake this work, which will begin before the end of this year, with completion scheduled for 2027. The total weight of the power plant to be dismantled is estimated at 540,000 tonnes and will cost around €1bn ($1.1bn).
