Remote dismantling of reactors in the Greifswald nuclear power station

Commercial use of nuclear power in the former GDR began in 1966 when the Rheinsberg nuclear power station was commissioned, a pressurized water reactor based on a Russian design with 70 MW electric power. In December 1973, unit 1 of the Greifswald nuclear power station (KGR) was commissioned; three other units of 440 MW electric power each followed. Trial operation of unit 5 was begun in 1989, but was not followed by continuous operation. After the political change, decommissioning the nuclear power plant was decided for a variety of reasons on November 17, 1990. This was to be followed immediately by dismantling. On June 30, 1995, the competent regulatory authority of the state of Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania issued the first permit of these activities. The demolition work has been planned with the objective in mind to release from the Atomic Energy Act the entire plant by late 2012 after completion of the last radiological steps. The article presents the concept of dismantling the nuclear reactors and its practical implementation as well as the stages of disassembly, packaging, and emplacement of materials in the Nord interim store as one of the key activities. As the reactor internals and the structures around them contain approximately 99% of the activity inventory of KGR, once the nuclear fuel has been removed, preparation, planning and execution of this project phase must meet the strictest requirements. These measures are described. All reactor components and assemblies were, and are, disassembled and packaged exclusively by remote operation. Evaluation of the results of mockup disassembly and subsequent dismantling of the reactor internals of units 1 and 2 show that the technique employed meets requirements. (orig.)