The Brokdorf nuclear power plant last fed electricity into the grid on Friday. According to the nuclear phase-out, the reactor must finally be taken off the grid at the end of the year. This is the end of the era of nuclear power in Schleswig-Holstein. The Krümmel and Brunsbüttel reactors were shut down years ago after serious breakdowns.
According to earlier information from power plant manager Uwe Jorden, the plant in Brokdorf is expected to reach a new record for annual electricity volume in its last year of operation with 11.5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). The pressurized water reactor with a net output of 1410 megawatts has been in operation since 1986. It produced a good 360 billion kWh.
Since 1986, opponents of nuclear power had persistently called for “shut down immediately” with vigils in front of the gates of the nuclear power plant – symbolically on the 6th day of each month. It was supposed to be reminiscent of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. With a human chain on April 24, 2010 several thousand participants demonstrated on the banks of the Elbe in Brokdorf for the nuclear phase-out.
100,000 against the nuclear power plant
A good 100,000 people had already demonstrated against the building in February 1981. There were riots with the police, as well as protests of 40,000 in June 1986. The nuclear power plant was one of the least disruptive in Germany. At the end of 2017, operator PreussenElektra applied for decommissioning as a consequence of the nuclear phase-out decision.
All 193 fuel elements from the reactor core of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant are placed in a storage pool in January and, after four weeks, in the on-site interim storage facility. The dismantling could take until 2040.
(anw)