Decommissioning of German Research Reactors Under the Governance of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research - 12154
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Projekttraeger Karlsruhe (PTKA-WTE), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany)
Since 1956, nuclear research and development (R and D) in Germany has been supported by the Federal Government. The goal was to help German industry to become competitive in all fields of nuclear technology. National research centers were established and demonstration plants were built. In the meantime, all these facilities were shut down and are now in a state of decommissioning and dismantling (D and D). Meanwhile, Germany is one of the leading countries in the world in the field of D and D. Two big demonstration plants, the Niederaichbach Nuclear Power Plant (KKN) a heavy-water cooled pressure tube reactor with carbon-dioxide cooling and the Karlstein Superheated Steam Reactor (HDR) a boiling light water reactor with a thermal power of 100 MW, are totally dismantled and 'green field' is reached. Another big project was finished in 2008. The Forschungs-Reaktor Juelich 1 (FRJ1), a research reactor with a thermal power of 10 MW was completely dismantled and in September 2008 an oak tree was planted on a green field at the site, where the FRJ1 was standing before. This is another example for German success in the field of D and D. Within these projects a lot of new solutions and innovative techniques were tested, which were developed at German universities and in small and medium sized companies mostly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Some examples are underwater-cutting technologies like plasma arc cutting and contact arc metal cutting. This clearly shows that research on the field of D and D is important for the future. Moreover, these research activities are important to save the know-how in nuclear engineering in Germany and will enable enterprises to compete on the increasing market of D and D services. The author assumes that an efficient decommissioning of nuclear installations will help stabilize the credibility of nuclear energy. Some critics of nuclear energy are insisting that a return to 'green field sites' is not possible. The successful completion of two big D and D projects (HDR and KKN), which reached green field conditions, are showing quite the contrary. Moreover, research on D and D technologies offers the possibility to educate students on a field of nuclear technology, which will be very important in the future. In these days D and D companies are seeking for a lot of young engineers and this will not change in the coming years. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22293458
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-14-WM-12154; TRN: US14V1112114982
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2012: Waste Management 2012 conference on improving the future in waste management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 1 Mar 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
42 ENGINEERING
CARBON DIOXIDE
DECOMMISSIONING
DEMONSTRATION PLANTS
HEAVY WATER
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE TUBE REACTORS
RESEARCH REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS