Dismantling plant Emsland

Reliable power station performance 

The 1,400-megawatt unit in the Emsland nuclear power station in Lingen in Lower Saxony was commissioned in 1988. On 15 April 2023, the plant was taken offline as part of the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany. The plant produced around 11 billion kWh of electricity a year, with an availability factor of around 94 per cent. This made Emsland power station one of the most powerful and reliable power plants in the industry throughout its life cycle. 

Electricity for 3.5 million households

Approximately 3.5 million households were supplied with electricity from the Emsland nuclear power plant per year. Using nuclear power meant that approximately 10 million tonnes less CO2 were released into the atmosphere. About 350 RWE employees worked on the site while the power plant was operational. The Lingen site has been operating its own vocational training workshop for over 40 years. Since 2021 it has been run by the Emsland gas-fired power plant. In this way RWE will continue to provide interesting and varied training opportunities for young people from the region going forward. 

In September 2024, RWE received the decommissioning and dismantling permit under nuclear law from the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment. Dismantling the plant will take approximately 15 years. Accordingly, the company expects the plant to be free of any traces of radioactivity and thus to be released from the Atomic Energy Act by 2037. Remaining buildings will then be demolished conventionally. During the dismantling process, the safety of humans, nature and the environment continue to always be RWE’s top priority.  

From securely sealing to dismantling the plant 

The former Lingen nuclear power plant is located in close proximity to the Emsland nuclear power plant and the Emsland gas-fired power plant. The first-generation nuclear power plant was on stream with an output of 240 MW from 1968 to 1977; subsequently the plant was securely sealed. As the responsible nuclear regulatory authority, the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment granted a dismantling licence in December 2015. All parts of the plant that were no longer needed have already been demolished – for example the machine hall or the chimney. As early as summer 1986, the last fuel elements, and hence 99 per cent of the radioactive potential, were removed from the Lingen plant. 

Intermediate storage facility Lingen is operational

In December 2002, the intermediate fuel element storage facility Lingen was commissioned on the site of the Emsland nuclear power plant. In line with the Atomic Energy Act, the spent fuel elements from the nuclear power station are stored there in secure “Castor” containers before being shipped to a final storage facility that has yet to be named by the Federal Government. As the new operating company, the state-owned organisation for interim storage (BGZ – Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung) has been responsible for the interim storage facility in Lingen since 1 January 2019. 

Facts and figures