Dodewaard nuclear power plant was a nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

 with a boiling water reactor

Boiling water reactor

The boiling water reactor is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuclear reactor after the pressurized water reactor , also a type of light water nuclear reactor...

 (BWR) in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 town of Dodewaard. The plant halted energy production in 1997.

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 March 26, 1969, in the presence of Queen Juliana.

Since the Chernobyl disaster

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

 in 1986, the political tide turned against nuclear energy

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

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

Closure

On the 26th of March 1997 the complex was shut down, 7 years earlier than originally planned. The complex will be dismantled in phases. Firstly, all fissionable material will be removed, followed by a complete closure of the buildings to trap any remaining radioactivity. After a period of 40 years the plant will be demolished and the site will become available for other purposes.

On April 9, 2005, the last remaining fissionable material was removed and on June 1, 2005, the 40-year waiting period went into effect. The complex remains tightly guarded.