Dodewaard nuclear power plant is a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

with a

boiling water reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nu ...

(BWR) of

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

in the Dutch town of

Dodewaard Dodewaard is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Neder-Betuwe, and lies about 7 km south of Wageningen. Dodewaard was a separate municipality until 2002, when it became a part of K ...

. The plant halted energy production in 1997. Its final decommissioning has been postponed for a period of 40 years and was placed into a safe enclosure configuration in 2005.

History

The plant in Dodewaard was the first nuclear power plant established in the Netherlands. It was built by the Dutch government, mainly as a means to obtain know-how about the construction and exploitation of a nuclear power plant. The plant was therefore relatively small with a net output of only 58 MW. Construction was started in 1965 and the facility opened on 26 March 1969, in the presence of

Queen Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. S ...

. After the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

in 1986, the political tide turned against

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity * Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy ...

, which was already a heavily debated issue in Dutch politics. With no prospect of the construction of new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands, Dodewaard's function as a research centre became superfluous. The ownership decided to halt electricity production at the relatively small and expensive plant in 1997.

Closure

On 26 March 1997 the complex was shut down, seven years earlier than originally planned. The complex is being dismantled in phases. Firstly, all fissionable material was removed, followed by a complete closure of the buildings to trap any remaining radioactivity. After a period of forty years, the plant will be demolished and the site will become available for other purposes. On 9 April 2005, the last remaining fissionable material was removed and on 1 June 2005, the forty year waiting period went into effect. The complex remains tightly guarded. On 21 May 2020 a fire broke out on the roof of the outer containment building which took several hours to bring under control. According to the authorities no radioactive material was released into the environment during the incident.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Netherlands, Energy, Nuclear technology Nuclear power stations with closed reactors Nuclear power stations in the Netherlands Buildings and structures in Gelderland Neder-Betuwe