The former Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in Grohnde in the Hamelin-Pyrmont district of Lower Saxony, Germany. Its single reactor has a nameplate capacity of 1430MWe and it was in operation from 1984 through 2021.
The power plant is located in Emmerthal Municipality, approximately 8km south of the town of Hamelin in southern Lower Saxony. Its namesake, the village of Grohnde, is located 2km south of the facility. It sits at an elevation of 72m above sea level in the Weser valley.
The closest village aside from Grohnde is Latferde, located 1.8km away on the opposite bank of the Weser river; the immediate vicinity of the power plant within a radius of 1km is uninhabited.[1] The closest large city is Hanover, located 50km from the power plant.
The power plant's location does not experience any significant seismic activity; as such the facility is considered earthquake-proof.[1]
The power plant is well-connected to road and railway links: the B83 runs to the west of the facility and the nearby Hanover-Altenbeken railway can be reached from the power plant from a branch line.
Basic information
The nuclear power plant has a gross capacity of 1430MWe and a net power output of 1360MWe. The plant's net output is the actual power delivered to the grid after subtracting the energy used by the reactor's own systems, such as the coolant pumps. The reactor has a thermal power output of 3900 megawatts.
The reactor used 193 fuel assemblies and utilized both enriched uranium and MOX fuel. In 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1998 the reactor produced more net electricity for the respective year than any other nuclear reactor in the world.[citation needed]
The power plant is equipped with a 130-metre high chimney used to vent reactor gases, the radioactivity of which was monitored and tightly controlled. Additionally, two 146-metre tall natural draft cooling towers, fed by water from the Weser river, are used to condense the steam in the low-pressure reactor cooling loop.[2]
Construction of the plant began in 1975. The plant was built by PreussenElektra and Gemeinschaftskraftwerk Weser GmbH, with each company having a 50% share in the project.
Construction was completed in 1984 and the reactor reached first criticality the same year. Commercial electricity generation began on February 1st, 1985.
In 2003, ownership of the plant was transferred to E.ON Energie AG and Stadtwerke Bielefeld.
In 2021 the plant's reactor exceeded 400 TWh of total low-carbon electricity output since it was connected to the grid, being the first nuclear reactor in the world to reach this milestone. As such, during its period of operation, the plant has prevented 400 million tons of CO2 emissions.[3][4] In theory, the electricity produced by the plant up until this date could have powered the entirety of Germany for almost a year.[5]
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