Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant

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Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant
Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant (as of 2012; cooling tower demolished in 2019)
Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant

(As of 2012; cooling tower demolished in 2019)

location
Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant
Coordinates 50 ° 24 ′ 28 "  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 23"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 24 ′ 28 "  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 23"  E
Country: Germany
Data
Project start: 1973
Commercial operation: Aug 1, 1987
Shutdown: Sep 9 1988

Decommissioned reactors (gross):

1 (1302 MW)
Energy fed in since commissioning: 10,291 GWh
Website: Page at RWE
Was standing: Oct 6, 2006
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .
f1

The Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant (abbreviation: KMK ) on the left bank of the Rhine northwest of Koblenz was the only nuclear power plant in Rhineland-Palatinate . It was put into operation on March 1, 1986. Due to a faulty building permit process , it had to go offline on September 9, 1988, just 30 months after the initial criticality . The third generation pressurized water reactor had a gross electrical output of 1,302 megawatts. The cooling tower was demolished in 2019; the complete demolition should be completed in the late 2020s.

Geographical location

The nuclear power plant in the Kärlich district of the city of Mülheim-Kärlich is located 2.6 kilometers south of Neuwied city ​​center and around ten kilometers northwest of Koblenz at 66 meters above sea ​​level . The 33.5 hectare site is part of the Neuwied Basin , a continuation of the slightly earthquake-prone Rhine Graben east of the volcanic Eifel . Topographically, the basin is significantly deeper than the surrounding Rhenish Slate Mountains . The Rhine runs around 100 meters north of the facility, and federal highway 9 is around 700 meters south of the facility . Around 231,000 people live within a radius of ten kilometers, over 107,000 of them in Koblenz (as of 2011). The site of the nuclear power plant is surrounded in a ten-kilometer radius by predominantly agricultural and forestry areas as well as several landscape and nature reserves . The average amount of precipitation at the site of the nuclear power plant is around 600 millimeters per year; The nuclear power plant is protected from flooding by a landfill .

investment

Nuclear reactor and other plant components

The nuclear reactor was a pressurized water reactor from the manufacturing consortium Babcock-Brown Boveri Reaktor GmbH (BBR), the only power reactor from this manufacturer in Germany. The plant was technically similar to the reactors of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant , but the design was adapted for the purpose of better passive safety. The primary circuit had two straight-tube steam generators , which were flown through from top to bottom. The cooled water was then fed back into the reactor by four main coolant pumps. The nuclear power plant had a gross electrical output ( nominal output of the generator ) of 1,302 megawatts. The net output, i.e. the maximum output available for feeding electrical energy into the power grid, was 1,219 megawatts and corresponded to the gross value minus the self-consumption of all ancillary and auxiliary systems of the power plant.

Data

  • Construction company: Consortium Deutsche Babcock (Reaktorsystem) / ABB
  • Type: Pressurized water reactor , 3rd generation
  • Nominal output ( electrical ): 1302  MW
  • First electricity production: March 14, 1986
  • Storage capacity: 362 fuel assemblies
  • Height of the cooling tower: 162 meters
  • Exhaust chimney height: 161.5 meters
  • Construction costs: 7 billion Deutschmarks (3.58 billion euros)
  • The cost of the dismantling: around 725 million euros

history

Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant (aerial view)
Vertical view into the 162 meter high cooling tower of the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant.
Initial phase of demolition work on the cooling tower in July 2018
Demolition of the cooling tower, aerial photo (May 2019)

Construction and decommissioning

At the end of the 1960s, planning began for a nuclear power plant in the Koblenz area. In addition to Mülheim-Kärlich, Bad Breisig and Neuwied were also discussed as possible locations. Bad Breisig failed for reasons of drinking water protection, Neuwied because of a lack of flood protection. Because an increasing demand for energy was expected, another nuclear power plant block was planned at the Mülheim-Kärlich site, but this was rejected.

In January 1975, RWE received its first approval notice for the construction of the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant. On July 21, 1975, RWE, Deutsche Bank , Dresdner Bank and Schweizerische Kreditanstalt founded the owner company Société Luxembourgeoise de Centrales Nucléaires SA , based in Luxembourg , in order to raise the investment costs of seven billion Deutschmarks. RWE was only the leaseholder and operator of the nuclear power plant.

The Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant was built from 1975 to 1986. During the construction period there were delays due to lawsuits from local authorities and private individuals such as Helga Vowinckel . The Federal Constitutional Court decided on 20 December 1979, the peaceful use of nuclear energy was compatible with the Basic Law, and had a constitutional complaint as part of the approval process back. The work was also controversial because it is located in the Neuwied Basin, which is easily prone to earthquakes . Because of this hazard, the reactor building was erected 70 meters from the originally planned location without a new building permit procedure .

Because of the irregularities in the licensing procedure, the nuclear power plant had to be shut down in September 1988 after almost two years in trial operation and exactly 100 days in regular operation due to a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court on September 9, 1988. The Rhineland-Palatinate state government under Prime Minister Helmut Kohl had enabled RWE as the operator to build the power plant due to insufficient requirements or violations of the Atomic Energy Act .

The Rhineland-Palatinate state government granted a modified building permit in 1990; However, this was repealed in 1995 by the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in Koblenz. In 1998 the Federal Administrative Court upheld the decision in the last instance . In the opinion of the court, the knowledge about the earthquake hazard would have required a completely new approval procedure.

In the following years, the nuclear power plant was kept operational until it was finally shut down by RWE in 2001.

In the period between construction and final decommissioning, there had been a number of reportable events that were rated at the lowest level 0 on the INES scale .

Dismantling

The cooling tower in Mülheim-Kärlich falls on August 9, 2019

The Mülheim-Kärlich NPP is the largest of its kind in Germany to date and is being dismantled. In 2002, the uranium fuel rods were removed from the reactor block and transported to the French reprocessing plant in La Hague . The actual demolition work began two years later and should be completed by the mid-2020s. The turbine, the generator and other components of the machine house were sold to an Egyptian energy supplier. After several years of delays, the expansion of the steam generator in the reactor pressure vessel began in October 2018 . The low-level radioactive material was to be disposed of in the closed " Schacht Konrad " mine in Salzgitter.

A recycling company wanted to set up on the site of the cooling tower. After the extensive decontamination, a recycling company initially bought the power plant site, but withdrew from the purchase agreement on January 1, 2016. On December 19, 2016, it became known that the RWE Group had issued a demolition permit for the cooling tower and that it would be demolished in 2017. The dismantling work for the cooling tower should start in August 2017 and last about a year. After several postponements, the demolition began on June 5, 2018. The cooling tower should be completely removed by the end of 2018, but there were delays.

From May 2018, a specially constructed excavator, which sat on the edge of the cooling tower, removed it piece by piece to a height of around 80 meters. From a height of 80 meters, however, it was no longer possible to use the demolition excavator on the cooling tower, as the inclination of the cooling tower wall was too high and there was a risk of the excavator slipping. The rest of the cooling tower therefore had to be demolished from the ground using the conventional method. The remainder of the tower, which was visible from afar for 41 years, was brought to a controlled collapse on August 9, 2019 and finally collapsed at 3:38 p.m.

The completion of the dismantling down to the "green field" is expected by approx. 2029.

Dispute over the transfer of the remaining electricity

With the amendment of the German Atomic Energy Act (AtG) in 2002, the atomic consensus negotiated in 2000 was enshrined in law. In this version, the law provides for a residual amount of electricity for each of the reactors in operation in 2000, after which the operating license will expire.

Due to the short running time of the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant, a special arrangement was made for this power plant: The power plant was granted a residual amount of electricity of 107.25 TWh, which only applies to the Emsland, Neckarwestheim 2, Isar 2, Brokdorf, Gundremmingen B and C (all with an approved remaining term beyond 2015) as well as up to an electricity volume of 21.45 TWh could be transferred to Biblis B (see § 7 Paragraph 1d or Annex 3). The two energy groups RWE and Vattenfall attempted to transfer it to the oldest still active power plants Biblis A and Brunsbüttel at the time of the applications , for which a shutdown was imminent. This regulation covered a total period of around 10 years.

In September 2006, RWE applied for the remaining amount of electricity from the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant to be transferred to the Biblis A reactor, which is not mentioned in Annex 3 of the Atomic Energy Act (see also Biblis nuclear power plant ). RWE's application was rejected in May 2007 by the Federal Environment Ministry (Minister at the time: Sigmar Gabriel (SPD)). A lawsuit by RWE against the rejection notice was dismissed by the Hessian Administrative Court (VGH) at the end of February 2008 . The appeal was rejected on March 26, 2009 by the Federal Administrative Court.

In March 2007, the operator Vattenfall applied for the remaining electricity from the RWE nuclear power plant in Mülheim-Kärlich to be transferred to the nuclear power plant in Brunsbüttel, which is also not included in the list of permitted reactors in Appendix 3 AtG. This application was also rejected by the Federal Environment Ministry in August 2007. Vattenfall's lawsuit against the rejection notice in January 2008 was dismissed by the Schleswig Higher Administrative Court. The appeal against the judgment was rejected by the Federal Administrative Court on March 26, 2009.

gallery

  • Mülheim-Kärlich and the nuclear power plant (2005)

  • Chapel Am Guten Mann and NPP construction site (1976)

  • Construction site of a nuclear power plant on April 5, 1976

  • Aerial view of the nuclear power plant in 1979 during the construction period

See also

Web links

Commons : Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.kernenergie.de (pdf), accessed on November 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Uta Rasche (March 13, 2011): On shaky ground: Mülheim-Kärlich . Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  3. ↑ www.rwe.de - RWE page about the Mülheim-Kärlich facility (status: 2008-06)
  4. ↑ Mülheim-Kärlich NPP - an endless story that is now coming to an end (PDF; 3.8 MB) Source: Project “Students read newspapers” - Class 8b of the Martinus Gymnasium Linz am Rhein in cooperation with the Bonner General-Anzeiger
  5. ↑ www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de: Industrial area Goldene Meile - The near nuclear power plant , accessed on February 20, 2018.
  6. ^ A b Martin Kunz: Construction costs alone of seven billion marks. Company bright future . In: FOCUS magazine . No. 36 , September 6, 1993 ( focus.de ).
  7. ↑ Investigators in the Meiler . In: DER SPIEGEL . No. May 20 , 1989 ( spiegel.de ).
  8. ↑ Nice present in: Der Spiegel 9/1977
  9. ↑ BVerfG, decision of December 20, 1979 - 1 BvR 385/77 (BVerfGE 53, 30 - Mülheim-Kärlich)
  10. ↑ Eckhard Grimmel: "How safe are nuclear power plants in Germany in the event of an earthquake?" Lecture given on September 7, 1996 in Wuppertal for the "Freiwirtschaftlichen Jugendverband Deutschland eV" ( Memento from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ BVerwG, judgment of September 9, 1988 - 7 C 3.86
  12. ↑ A lot of trickery in: Der Spiegel 12/1989
  13. ↑ Annual reports on reportable events of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection ( Memento from June 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ Daniel Wetzel: Mülheim-Kärlich. This is how you make a nuclear power station disappear. In: welt.de . June 11, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Egyptians cannibalize German nuclear power plant. Handelsblatt, November 2, 2009, accessed on February 26, 2011 .
  16. ↑ Nuclear power plant in Mülheim-Kärlich: cooling tower to give way to industrial park in: Rhein-Zeitung , December 29, 2014
  17. ↑ The cooling tower in Mülheim-Kärlich is longer ( memento from January 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Wiesbadener Kurier online, January 8, 2016
  18. ^ Mülheim-Kärlich: Approval for the demolition of the cooling tower provided. SWR Landesschau Rhineland-Palatinate, December 19, 2016
  19. ↑ Dismantling of the cooling tower begins in August SWR Aktuell, June 8, 2017
  20. ↑ Dismantling of the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant Demolition of the cooling tower is approaching (swr.de from October 12, 2017, accessed on December 31, 2017)
  21. ↑ Nuclear power plant cooling tower - demolition has begun (swr.de from June 5, 2018, accessed on June 6, 2018)
  22. ↑ SWR News: Special excavator leaves the cooling tower in Mülheim-Kärlich. Retrieved August 9, 2019 .
  23. ↑ SWR Aktuell: A colossus goes to its knees - Mülheim-Kärlich cooling tower: All information about the demolition. Retrieved August 9, 2019 .
  24. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: The cooling tower of the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant is history. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Law on the peaceful use of nuclear energy and the protection against its dangers (Atomic Energy Act)
  26. ↑ Federal Environment Ministry rejects RWE application. Amount of electricity may not be transferred from Mülheim-Kärlich to Biblis A / application contradicts the Atomic Energy Act
  27. ↑ VGH Hessen, judgment of February 27, 2008 - 6 C 883 / 07.T
  28. ↑ BVerwG, judgment of 26.03.2009 - 7 C 12.08 (ECLI: DE: BVerwG: 2009: 260309U7C12.08.0)
  29. ↑ Federal Environment Ministry rejects Vattenfall application. Amount of electricity may not be transferred from Mülheim-Kärlich to Brunsbüttel / application contradicts the Atomic Energy Act
  30. ^ OVG Schleswig-Holstein, judgment of January 16, 2008 - 4 KS 6/07
  31. ↑ BVerwG, judgment of 26.03.2009 - 7 C 8.08 (ECLI: DE: BVerwG: 2009: 260309U7C8.08.0)