At the beginning of the 1990s, the decision was made to start immediately with the dismantling of the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant.
This decision was crucial for the development of the approval strategy and the development of the technical concepts for the implementation of decommissioning and dismantling as well as for the disposal of the resulting material.
The goal was and is to provide all services primarily through our own staff.
Based on a thorough technical and radiological survey of all facilities, buildings and areas, the procedure for decommissioning, dismantling and disposal was developed at an early stage. In this way, it was possible to plan and build facilities required in due time with the appropriate capacities for disassembly and treatment of residual materials. These include, for example, the construction of the Interim Storage Facility North (ISN), the conversion of the Central Active Workshop (CAW), the commissioning of the Clearance Measurement Facility (CMF) and the construction of the Central Decontamination and Water Treatment Plant (CDW).
In 1995, the dismantling of the Greifswald NPP began.
Dismantling Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant
In 1986, the Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (KKR) reached its service life after 20 years. In the years 1986/87 the reconstruction measures were carried out with the objective of a temporary operation for five years. The power plant approval granted by the former State Office for Atomic Safety and Radiation Protection (SAAS) was accordingly limited to the end of the 1992 reactor campaign.
Due to deficits to the safety standard according to the Atomic Energy Act (AtG) of the Federal Republic of Germany, which excluded a further operation, the operator made the decision in November 1990 to stop the power operation of the unit and shut down the plant.
In 1995, the decommissioning of the Rheinsberg Power Plant began.
Dismantling Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant
EWN's disposal concept is based on the direct dismantling of the six reactor units in Greifswald and Rheinsberg which were shut down in 1995. The Central Active Workshop (CAW) is a further component of this concept in addition to the Interim Storage Facility North (ISN).
As a processing station for solid radioactive waste and residual materials, the former repair workshop for contaminated plant parts from Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant has been equipped with specific conditioning technology. Work in the CAW has been carried out in accordance with this new role since 1997.
The aim of processing the materials which come directly from dismantling the nuclear power plants or from the interim storage facilities is:
- To achieve clearance measurement of the materials through disassembly and decontamination (removal of radioactive contamination),
- To pack the materials appropriately for interim storage after dismantling,
- To pack the accumulated waste in such a manner that it can be packed into final storage containers.
Central Active Workshop
A central component of EWN’s disposal concept for dismantling the nuclear plants in Greifswald/Lubmin and Rheinsberg is the use of the Interim Storage Facility North (ISN) for storing nuclear fuel and the interim and decay storage and processing of accumulated radioactive residual materials and waste.
Both the waste store and the transport container store are housed in ISN’s storage building. Nuclear fuel, waste containing nuclear fuel, low and medium-level contaminated residual materials and waste are stored temporarily in eight storage buildings which are connected along the front side by a loading hall.
The long-term plan is for the nuclear fuel and the waste containing nuclear fuel currently in the Interim Storage Facility North to be moved to a federal final storage facility for heat-generating radioactive waste. The residual radioactive substances remain in the ISN until they can be moved to the KONRAD final storage facility or recycled conventionally or disposed of in landfill after processing, cleaning and subsequent official approval.
Interim Storage Facility North - Waste Store
A central component of EWN’s disposal concept for dismantling the nuclear plants in Greifswald/Lubmin and Rheinsberg is the use of the Interim Storage Facility North (ISN) for storing nuclear fuel and the interim and decay storage and processing of accumulated radioactive residual materials and waste.
Both the waste store and the transport container store are housed in ISN’s storage building. Nuclear fuel, waste containing nuclear fuel, low and medium-level contaminated residual materials and waste are stored temporarily in eight storage buildings which are connected along the front side by a loading hall.
The long-term plan is for the nuclear fuel and the waste containing nuclear fuel currently in the Interim Storage Facility North to be moved to a federal final storage facility for heat-generating radioactive waste. The residual radioactive substances remain in the ISN until they can be moved to the KONRAD final storage facility or recycled conventionally or disposed of in landfill after processing, cleaning and subsequent official approval.
Interim Storage Facility North - Transport Container Store
In 2010, EWN began to build up the Konrad coordination office. Its task is the final storage management for all radioactive waste which already exists and that which accumulates in course of the dismantling activities of the EWN Group. In 2015, the status of a coordination office was also bestowed on EWN by the other publicly financed waste disposal bodies.
The headquarters of the Konrad coordination office is located in Karlsruhe on the premises of our subsidiary KTE.
Konrad Coordination Office