A nuclear power plant being dismantled
The former Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant is located in Rhineland-Palatinate, north of the city of Koblenz. The plant has been dismantled since summer 2004. This means that all technical equipment will be removed from the reactor building. Once proof has been provided that the remaining concrete structures are free of artificial radioactivity, the building and site can be released from the Atomic Energy Act.
The turbine building, switchgear building, cooling tower and other buildings were already demolished in 2018/2019 and the vacated parts of the site have now been sold to subsequent users.
Decommissioning sealed in nuclear consensus
The decision to decommission and dismantle the Mülheim-Kärlich nuclear power plant is a result of the agreement to phase out nuclear energy in Germany, which was concluded on 14 June 2000 between the then Federal Government and the nuclear power plant operators.
A brief look back
After construction began in 1975, the plant was only able to start nuclear trial operation in 1986. Formal defects led to its shutdown in September 1988 after only 13 months of operation. The legal dispute that followed, which lasted several years, showed that neither technical nor safety-related defects led to the shutdown of the plant.
Authorisation for decommissioning in 2004
In 2001, RWE submitted an initial licence application to the responsible licensing authority. Accompanied by a detailed discussion procedure, the Ministry for the Environment and Forestry in Rhineland-Palatinate granted approval for the decommissioning and start of the first dismantling phase of the Mülheim-Kärlich power plant on 16 July 2004. Further approvals followed, the last of which was granted on 8 October 2015.
Dismantling work
Dismantling work in the reactor area is currently focussing on the so-called primary circuit: since the summer of 2022, the former heart of the plant, the reactor pressure vessel, has been dismantled at great expense - and in large parts by remote handling.
99% of the radioactivity removed in 2002
What remains will be around 1,700 tonnes of radioactive waste. As this is low- and medium-level radioactive material, it can all be stored in the authorised Konrad repository. The last fuel elements - and thus 99% of the radioactive potential - were already removed from the Mülheim-Kärlich plant in summer 2002.
