POWERHOUSE FOR CHANGE The EWN group of Germany deals with the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities. The EWN group is comprised of three autonomous companies; EWN Greifswald and Rheinsberg, WAK Karlruhe and AVR Julich. As the global demand for energy increases, the company has geared up to meet the new challenges ahead.
The long-term interim storage area for the dismantled reactor sections at Sayda Bay
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he EWN group is wholly owned by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and is a world leader in the decommissioning, dismantling and disposal of nuclear plants both at home and abroad. In addition to its key decommissioning and dismantling activities, EWN is responsible for the interim storage of spent fuel elements and the disposal of the resulting radioactive waste. Due to the company’s in-depth experience in dealing with complex nuclear decommissioning issues and its technical expertise, EWN is at the forefront of technology in its sector and attracts a diverse range of nuclear decommissioning contracts. For example, as a result of the negotiations between the G8 States in Canada in 2003, EWN was commissioned by the federal ministry of economics and technology to undertake the disposal of Russia’s aging fleet of nuclear submarines. Under the leadership of EWN a long-term
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storage area for the reactor sections of the submarines was established. After the first part of the facility near Murmansk had been commissioned in 2006, it was completed on 1 September 2011. The project in the Saida Bay continues – close to the storage area a disposal centre with storage and conditioning facilities similar to the ones at EWN is going to be built. In addition to this, the company is currently working on the decommissioning of nuclear plants at key sites throughout eastern Europe, from Bulgaria to Slovakia.
New centre of energy and technology EWN currently operates from its two sites in Germany, the largest of which is in Mecklenburg Western Pomerania, where the company is dismantling and decommissioning the nuclear power plants near Greifswald and at Rheinsberg/Brandenburg.
“The dismantling is going according to plan, and the main project activities are planned to be completed in 2014/15”, says Henry Cordes, CEO of EWN since 2011. “The last steam generators from unit 3 will be removed in 2013.” EWN stores nuclear fuel waste in Castor casks at its Interim Storage Facility North (ISN) in Greifswald before it is taken to a federal final storage site for heat developing radioactive waste in the long term. All other radioactive material is kept at the ISN site until it is taken to the federal final storage facility for waste with negligible heat development (Konrad repository), or taken to the scrap dealer after decontamination and exemption by the authorities. In 2008 EnBW, owner of the Obrigheim nuclear power plant in Baden-Württemberg decided to commission EWN for the treatment and conditioning of their steam
