Visit Vattenfall’s Nuclear Power Plant at Krumel
After brief talk and discussion at NIT with Vattenfall, a day arrived to visit NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Dream… of probably every kid!!!!
A Little introduction of Vattenfall and power plant at Krümel, Germany: Vattenfall is one of biggest electricity producer, distributor and seller in Europe. Krümel is a small village near Hamburg, where vattenfall’s nuclear power plant is located. Site of the plant is very historic. About 100 years back, Alfred Nobel (remember Nobel price!) build world’s first Dynamite manufacturing plant here in Krümel at the same site where this plant is built.
Journey to the plant:
Location of plant is about 40 km form Hamburg, but it took us almost 2 hrs to reach there, changing trains and buses. But overall journey was quite pleasant. The plant capacity is about 1250 MW and is Europe’s one of biggest “Boiling water” type Nuclear power plant. The road passes just next to power plant!!! Quite uncommon to India where it would be probably 2 to 3 km away from normal operational roads.
Plant Model
Visit to Controlled and non controlled area:
A nuclear power plant is divided in to 2 parts in general: controlled area i.e. the reactor and accessories and non controlled area i.e. turbines, coolers and generator section. I never thought that we would get chance to see the controlled area. Fortunately the plant was under maintenance and due to non-operability we got chance to see every part… even the core of reactor with Nuclear raw material. I must say as a process engineer and designing and commissioning chemical plants, this was one of absolute extraordinary experience.
Nuclear reactor Core (during shutdown, under the water level)
Generator with Turbines (1250 MW)
On the top of Reactor Core area !!! (reactor top is seen in back)
Security and Safety:
Team NIT at one of Control Posts with Suites
Impression:
In India probably I would never get a chance (or permission by authority) to visit a Nuclear Power plant, that too into controlled area looking at the core of reactor. Also I would probably never get a chance to design a nuclear power plant!!! But I’ll never forget this visit to Vattenfall’s Krümel plant.
-Hemant Nagda
After brief talk and discussion at NIT with Vattenfall, a day arrived to visit NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Dream… of probably every kid!!!!
A Little introduction of Vattenfall and power plant at Krümel, Germany: Vattenfall is one of biggest electricity producer, distributor and seller in Europe. Krümel is a small village near Hamburg, where vattenfall’s nuclear power plant is located. Site of the plant is very historic. About 100 years back, Alfred Nobel (remember Nobel price!) build world’s first Dynamite manufacturing plant here in Krümel at the same site where this plant is built.
Krümel plant from other side of river Elbe
Journey to the plant:
Location of plant is about 40 km form Hamburg, but it took us almost 2 hrs to reach there, changing trains and buses. But overall journey was quite pleasant. The plant capacity is about 1250 MW and is Europe’s one of biggest “Boiling water” type Nuclear power plant. The road passes just next to power plant!!! Quite uncommon to India where it would be probably 2 to 3 km away from normal operational roads.
Plant Model
Visit to Controlled and non controlled area:
A nuclear power plant is divided in to 2 parts in general: controlled area i.e. the reactor and accessories and non controlled area i.e. turbines, coolers and generator section. I never thought that we would get chance to see the controlled area. Fortunately the plant was under maintenance and due to non-operability we got chance to see every part… even the core of reactor with Nuclear raw material. I must say as a process engineer and designing and commissioning chemical plants, this was one of absolute extraordinary experience.
Nuclear reactor Core (during shutdown, under the water level)
Generator with Turbines (1250 MW)
On the top of Reactor Core area !!! (reactor top is seen in back)
Even though plant was not operating at the moment, we had to pass through all safety and security procedures. I must appreciate the security protocols for the visit. Even international airport or Consulates Generals don’t have such security. Apart from an independent security for entry to the plant there is continuous monitoring of reactor core and nuclear material by regulatory authority via close circuit cameras. We checked ourselves at least 4 times at different places before entering the controlled area. And same while returning back. We were wearing special suit, shoes helmet and gloves all the time in controlled area. A radioactive measurement device was given to each of us and was continuously monitoring radiations around us. I remember value of 0.001 mSv of radiation when we moved out (safe limit for normal visitor is 2.0 mSv).
Team NIT at one of Control Posts with Suites
Impression:
In India probably I would never get a chance (or permission by authority) to visit a Nuclear Power plant, that too into controlled area looking at the core of reactor. Also I would probably never get a chance to design a nuclear power plant!!! But I’ll never forget this visit to Vattenfall’s Krümel plant.
-Hemant Nagda
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