Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Station (, KKR) was the second nuclear reactor in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

after the Rossendorf Research Reactor, and the first nuclear power reactor in East Germany. It was built close to the city of

Rheinsberg Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, in north-eastern Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately north-east of Neuruppin and north-west of Berlin. History Freder ...

on the Stechlinsee. The power station was one of the first generation of demonstration power reactors.

Start-up

The project commenced in 1956, and construction began January 1, 1960. First criticality followed on March 11, 1966 (the reactor was not pressurised at that time however). Full start-up was on May 9, and commercial power production began on October 11, 1966.

Achievement

The single

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, India and Canada). In a PWR, water is used both as ...

was of Soviet design – type VVER-210. Gross power of the station was 70 MWe, but 8 MWe was required to run plant systems, so net output to the grid was 62 MWe. Gross power output was subsequently raised to 75 MWe and then 80 MWe as operating experience increased. Cooling water was taken from the Nehmitzsee and by a special discharge channel was discharged into the Stechlinsee. The plant accumulated 130,000 hours of operating time.

Safety

The worst accident occurring in 1973 at the plant during operation was classified as an INES level-2 event. A tear in tubing in a cooling circuit was noticed quickly and was repaired. In 2011,

Deutschlandradio Kultur Deutschlandfunk Kultur (; abbreviated to ''DLF Kultur'' or ''DKultur'') is a culture-oriented radio station and part of Deutschlandradio, a set of three national radio stations in Germany. Initially named ''DeutschlandRadio Berlin'', the station ...

produced a radioplay about this event. ''Rheinsberger Restlaufzeit'' combines a fictional story with original sound clips of the former spokesman of the nuclear power plant as he reconstructs the events of 1973.

End of operations and decommissioning

The power plant had been scheduled to be operated for 20 years until 1987; in 1986 (after renovation work) this was extended to 1992. However, on 1 June 1990 the impeding

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

(which was completed three months later) put an end to operations, when the power station was permanently shut down by the last East-German government due to safety concerns. Since 1995 the plant has been undergoing decommissioning activities conducted by the company previously operating the plant during its active life (Energiewerke Nord GmbH). Radioactive materials are being moved to a temporary storage facility. The area is under consideration for either site "

greening Greening is the process of transforming living environments, and also artifacts such as a space, a lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle or a brand image, into a more environmentally friendly version (i.e. 'greening your home' or 'greening your office ...

" or conversion into an

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

once the plant has been dismantled. The decommissioning costs are estimated to be 1 billion Euro. The ground water has been contaminated, and the buildings have higher amount of contamination than expected, which will delay decommissioning.

Picture on East German Currency

The engraving on the reverse of the 1971 series East German 10 Mark banknote shows a female engineer at the control console of the Rheinsberg plant. The obverse features women's rights advocate

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the Inde ...

References