Dismantling still takes decades: Fessenheim nuclear power plant is finally off the grid

It is the oldest nuclear power plant in France and is close to the German border. After one reactor was shut down years ago, the second was finally shut down. However, Fessenheim has to be dismantled for years.

The Alsatian Fessenheim nuclear power plant, which has been a safety risk for decades, has been finally shut down. The second pressurized water reactor of the oldest nuclear power plant in France was disconnected from the power grid at 11 p.m. on Monday evening, as the French energy company EDF announced. The process had started several hours earlier than planned on Monday afternoon.

The first reactor block of the power plant on the Rhine that had been producing electricity since the end of 1977 had already been taken off the grid at the end of February. The nuclear power plant on the border with Baden-Württemberg has been considered a security risk for decades. Opponents of nuclear power, especially in Germany and Switzerland, had long been unsuccessful in shutting down the two reactors. German politicians and environmental activists welcomed the decommissioning. Employees and residents, however, sharply criticized the shutdown.

The region around the municipality of Fessenheim in the Haut-Rhin department in southern Alsace is now to become a green and cross-border showcase project. Projects for sustainable energy generation are to be implemented in a German-French innovation park. Decades will pass before the site of the nuclear power plant can be used. According to the operator, five years are planned for the preparations for dismantling, and the dismantling itself takes another 15 years.

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