Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant

Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant
Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant
Country	Germany
Coordinates	49°15′9″N 8°26′11″E / 49.25250°N 8.43639°E
Status	Undergoing decommissioning
Construction began	1970
Commission date	May 7, 1979
Decommission date	December 31, 2019
Operator	EnBW
Cooling towers	2
Cooling source	Rhine River
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	1,402 MW;
Capacity factor	89.3%
Annual net output	17,845 GWh
External links
Website	Site of EnBW
Commons	Related media on Commons
	[edit on Wikidata]

The Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant is located in Philippsburg, Karlsruhe (district), Germany. The plant was operated by EnBW Kernkraft GmbH. As part of Germany's phase out of nuclear energy (Atomausstieg), unit 1 was shut down in 2011 and unit 2 in 2019. Demolition of conventional structures began in January 2020. The process of decommissioning is underway as of January 2020 beginning with defueling and dismantling of primary coolant lines. The plants operator EnBW expects the decommissioning process to take around 10-15 years. ^[1]

History

For the first unit, parts made for the cancelled Wyhl plant were used. The second unit was originally planned to be a BWR as well but plans later changed. Final disconnection for both units was scheduled for 2011 for unit 1 and 2017 for unit 2, but as of 2010 had been changed to 2026 and 2032 respectively.^[2]

Following the incident at the Fukushima plant in Japan reactor 1 was closed on 17 March 2011 for a three-month moratorium on nuclear power. The outcome of this moratorium was announced on the morning of 30 May 2011 and Philippsburg-1 was named as a plant that would not be returning to generation at the end of the moratorium.

Subsequent legislation caused the end of Philippsburg-2's operation on the evening of 31 December 2019.^[3]

The two cooling towers were demolished early on the morning of 14 May 2020.^[4]