Germany’s Grohnde NPP, which was shut down in December 2021, and has been under dismantling since January 2024, has now been defueled. A total of 694 fuel elements have been loaded from the storage pool into CASTOR containers since 2023 and transferred to the Grohnde interim fuel storage facility, according to PreussenElektra.
In October 2017 PreussenElektra, a subsidiary of EON Group, applied for approval to decommission and dismantle the 1,360 MWe pressurised water reactor. In December 2023, the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy & Climate Protection issued the first decommissioning and dismantling permit to PreussenElektra and dismantling work began in the following month.
“Nuclear fuel-free is an important milestone in the dismantling of our facility. It forms the basis for further technical and organizational adjustments,” said plant manager Jörg Bor-nemann. “Now we can shut down and dismantle additional systems and reduce shift staffing. Their valuable expertise is urgently needed elsewhere – for example, for the disassembly of the internals in the reactor pressure vessel, which begins at the end of this year.”
To pave the way for the dismantling project, various components and plant components must first be removed in the area of the emptied fuel element storage basin to create the necessary storage, handling, dismantling and packaging areas. The newly constructed transport provision hall is available to receive the low and medium-level radioactive waste from the dismantling. The Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy & Climate Protection granted the research permit for the storage of radioactive waste and residues at the beginning of April.
Dismantling of the Grohnde NPP is scheduled to be completed by 2039. After that, the power plant site will be ready for subsequent use. Around 500 people are currently employed at the site.
