Grafenrheinfeld is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the district of
Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban ag ...
in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The municipality is home to the
nuclear power station
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 generator that produces ele ...
, Grafenrheinfeld, which opened in 1982.
Grafenrheinfeld Nuclear Power Station
The nuclear power station Grafenrheinfeld (short: KKG - not to confused with the similarly abbreviated nuclear power station Goesgen in Switzerland) is located south of Schweinfurt at the Main. Commencement of construction was 1974, start-up took place 1981. It consists of a 3rd Generation
pressurized water reactor
A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) i ...
("pre-Konvoi") with an electrical output of 1345 MW. Operator is the E.ON nuclear power GmbH headquartered in Hanover. The two
cooling tower
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...
s with a height of 143 m are visible from far away. The nuclear power station was "power station world champion" in both years 1984 and 1985. In the much discussed anti-nuclear power novel ''
Die Wolke
''Die Wolke'' () is a German novel for young adults by German author Gudrun Pausewang, published in 1987. The story was written after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, with a 14-year-old girl having to deal with the consequences o ...
'' by
Gudrun Pausewang
Gudrun Pausewang (3 March 1928 – 23 January 2020), less commonly known by her married name, Gudrun Wilcke, was a German author of children's and young adult literature. She was known for books such as '' The Last Children of Schewenborn'' and ...
, a fictitious nuclear disaster occurs at Grafenrheinfeld, releasing a radioactive cloud which pollutes much of Germany. In the film of the same name, a fictitious plant name is used. Temporary storage facilities for depleted core fuel elements at the location went into use on 1 March 2006.
KFU-Mast
The KFU (nuclear reactor remote control, German Kernenergiefernüberwachung) mast Grafenrheinfeld is a guyed steel framework mast for the measurement of meteorological parameters and environmental radioactivity. It is visible for a long distance and is outside of the plant area approximately 750 meters south the power station. The KFU-mast is 164 meters high and was built in 1977/78.
References
Schweinfurt (district)
{{Schweinfurtdistrict-geo-stub