Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant
| Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant | |
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The Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant
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 Location of Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant in Germany
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| Official name | Kernkraftwerk Obrigheim |
| Country | Germany |
| Location | Obrigheim, Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis |
| Coordinates | 49°21′52″N 9°04′35″E / 49.36444°N 9.07639°ECoordinates: 49°21′52″N 9°04′35″E / 49.36444°N 9.07639°E |
| Status | |
| Construction began | 1965 |
| Commission date | March 31, 1969 |
| Decommission date | May 11, 2005 |
| Owner(s) | EnBW |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | PWR |
| Reactor supplier | Siemens-Schuckert |
| Power generation | |
| Units decommissioned | 1 x 357 MW |
| Capacity factor | 82.9% |
| Annual output | 2,593 GWh |
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Website Site c/o EnBW |
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The Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant (KWO) is a mothballed nuclear power plant in Obrigheim, Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, at the river Neckar, owned by EnBW, and operated one pressurized water reactor unit from 1969-2005. It has been defuelled since 2007 with spent fuel rods awaiting transport to an interim storage facility. In March 2017, EnBW tested to ship numerous castors by barge on the Neckar to the Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant 40 km downstream.
On May 5, 1955 the Federal Republic of Germany, with the French occupation force, started to work seriously towards peaceful use of nuclear energy. The district of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were particularly interested in this development. In 1957 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kernkraft Stuttgart (AKS) group had already been created in Baden-Württemberg. The minister-president and minister of economics of Baden-Württemberg at the time, Hermann Veit took over the project of establishing a nuclear power plant, and looked towards the Calder Hall Gas cooled reactor in England for a design.
In the spring 1959, AKS chose an unusual reactor design, the organically moderated and cooled reactor (OMR). When the much smaller AEC demonstration facility at Piqua, Ohio reported severe problems, they switched to a light water reactor in 1962.
The reactor went online in 1969 and was shut down in 2005.
Since 2005 the EnBW owned nuclear power in Obrigheim has been in the process of dismantlement; the spent fuel rods have been in wet storage since 2007. The salient barrier is a missing final repository for the 342 highly radioactive fuel rods. Obrigheim does not have an interim storage facility. For EnBW not to have to build one, the fuel rods need to be shipped to the Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant, which is about 40 kilometers away and still has space in its temporary storage. The move has already been approved, but it is still unclear by what means. EnBW has considered transport by road, by rail and by barge. The former 2 options do not apply absent a nearby train connection, and road transport is complicated by single lane roads through a densely populated area, where large-scale barriers would have to be made.
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