The energy company RWE has received the nuclear licence from the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection to decommission and dismantle the former Emsland nuclear power plant (KKE).
“We have waited a long time for this moment and will tackle our legal obligation to dismantle the plant safely and swiftly with an expert and highly motivated team made up of our own staff and partner companies”, said Steffen Kanitz, Chief Nuclear Energy Officer at RWE Power AG.
The first dismantling measures will be the removal of the core internals and steam generators.
The past few months have already been used for preparatory measures. For example, ‘full system decontamination’ has been carried out to thoroughly clean the systems that are active during power operation. According to RWE, this will significantly reduce radiation exposure for operating personnel during dismantling and downstream processing of dismantled plant components.
With the construction of a technology and logistics building on the site of the Emsland nuclear power plant, RWE has been creating the necessary logistics space for plant dismantling since mid-2023.
In future, low and medium-level radioactive waste from the Lingen nuclear power plants, i.e. the Lingen nuclear power plant (268 MW) and the Emsland nuclear power plant (1,400 MW), will be professionally packaged in final storage containers and made available here until it is handed over to the federal government for disposal.
Parallel to the dismantling of the nuclear power plants, the transformation of the Lingen site into a central hydrogen hub is already in full swing. Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG, at the inauguration of the pilot electrolysis plant at the beginning of August 2024: “Lingen is one of the most exciting places in the German energy transition. Right next to our flexible gas-fired power plant and our modern large-scale battery, we are now also producing green hydrogen. Over the next few years, we will continue to expand the production of green hydrogen here at the site in order to make green molecules available to industrial customers and thus support them in their decarbonisation efforts.”