View source for SNR-300

{{Short description|Fast breeder reactor in Germany, never entered service}}
[[File:Kernwasser Wunderland - Schneller Brüter Kalkar (0746).jpg|thumb|The reactor on the left, the vent stack on the right]]
[[File:SchnellerBrueterKalkar.jpg|thumb|Schneller Brüter Kalkar, [[Fast-neutron reactor|fast]] [[breeder reactor]] SNR-300, now an amusement park]]
The '''SNR-300''' was a [[Fast-neutron reactor|fast]] [[breeder reactor|breeder]] [[Sodium-cooled fast reactor|sodium-cooled]] [[nuclear reactor]] built near the town of [[Kalkar]], [[North Rhine-Westphalia]], Germany.<ref>{{cite web|title=Planned fast sodium-cooled reactor in Kalkar/Rhine, with an electric gross output of 327 MW. After being almost totally completed, the reactor did not enter service for political reasons;from google (snr 300 sodium cooled) result 6|url=https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/s/snr-300.htm|access-date=2016-12-01|archive-date=2016-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201144636/https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/s/snr-300.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The reactor was completed but never taken online. SNR-300 was to output 327 [[megawatt]]s. The project cost about 7 billion [[Deutsche Mark]] (about {{euro}}3.5 billion or over $4 billion). The site is now the location of a [[theme park]], [[Wunderland Kalkar]], which incorporates much of the power plant buildings into the scenery.

== Background ==
In [[France]], [[Commissariat à l'énergie atomique|CEA]] and [[Électricité de France|EDF]] had started to build [[Phénix]] in 1968, which was powered up in December 1973.
It was a pool-type liquid-metal fast breeder reactor cooled with liquid [[sodium]] and a small-scale (gross 264/net 233 MW<sub>e</sub>) prototype [[fast breeder reactor]], located at the [[Marcoule]] nuclear site, near [[Orange, France]]. Phénix had to be stopped for refueling every two months. Between 1990 and 1996, it was run sporadically. Despite this, Phénix, as a demonstrator was seen as a technical success. <ref>{{Cite web| title=Phenix and superphenix feedback experience | author=Joël Guidez | url=https://www.gen-4.org/gif/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-12/gifiv_webinar_phenix_superphenix_final_guidez.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926050449/https://www.gen-4.org/gif/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-12/gifiv_webinar_phenix_superphenix_final_guidez.pdf | archive-date=2020-09-26}}</ref>

When the project for the subsequent full-scale power-plant prototype [[Superphénix]] was started in 1986, it was generally felt that no more experimental FBT prototypes were needed. Superphénix, being a prototype reactor, demonstrated reliability issues and had a historical capacity factor of less than 14.4%.<ref>{{Cite web|title=PRIS - Reactor Details|url=https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/CountryStatistics/ReactorDetails.aspx?current=178|access-date=2021-05-13|website=pris.iaea.org}}</ref> Many of these problems were solved over time, and by 1996 the prototype was reaching its design operational goals.

The Russian [[BN-600 reactor]] is a similar sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Russia. Designed to generate electrical power of 600 MW in total, the plant dispatches 560 MW to the Middle Urals power grid. It has been in operation since 1980 and represents an evolution on the preceding BN-350 reactor. In 2014, a larger version of the reactor, the [[BN-800]], began operation and reached full commercial operation in August 2016.

== Planning ==
In late 1972, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands charged the [[Siemens AG|Siemens]] subsidiary Interatom to build a [[Fast breeder reactor|fast breeder]]. The German government wanted to limit energy import, and a breeder facility was required to use the limited resources efficiently as the [[uranium]] supply in Germany was limited.
The building commenced at the end of the same year.

On 20 May 1975, the [[Council of the European Communities]] established  the Joint Undertaking 'Schnell-Brüter- Kernkraftwerksgesellschaft mbH' (SBK).<ref>{{Citation|title=75/328/Euratom: Council Decision of 20 May 1975 on the establishment of the Joint Undertaking 'Schnell-Brüter- Kernkraftwerksgesellschaft mbH' (SBK)|date=1975-06-12|url=http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/1975/328/oj/eng|issue=31975D0328|language=en|access-date=2019-11-03}}</ref>

== Timeline ==
* 1972: The project commences.
* April 25, 1973: foundation stone ceremony
* 1977: Increasing public doubt about the safety of nuclear energy culminates in the first protest, involving about 40,000 people marching in the streets of [[Kalkar]].
* March 28, 1979: [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]] suffers a partial meltdown and a local [[anti-nuclear movement]] causes open questioning of the project. This discussion leads to an inquiry by a commission of the [[Bundestag]]. Building is interrupted for 4 years as the commission concludes that the safety of the facility needs to be upgraded in light of the difficult to control process of fast breeders, along with concerns about the coolant ([[sodium]], which can explode when in contact with water). The interruption along with the redesign of the safety features raise the costs of the project significantly. The local state government of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] turns against the project.
* 1982: The [[Chancellor of Germany (1949–present)|Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany]] [[Helmut Schmidt]] (SPD) is followed by [[Helmut Kohl]] (CDU).
* 1985: SNR-300 is completed. The reactor is taken into partial operation. The [[sodium]] coolant is already running through the coolant loop and has to be kept hot using electric heating elements so it does not solidify. The reactor is ready to receive nuclear materials. In this phase, the running costs are over {{euro}}5 million per month.<ref>{{Cite web|title=SNR-300|url=https://memim.com/snr-300.html|access-date=2021-12-06|website=memim.com}}</ref>{{clarify|date=May 2018}} The state government (which has authority in matters of nuclear power and environmental issues) blocks the opening of the plant, against the wishes of the federal government. As elections are coming up ([[Bundestagswahl 1987|Bundestagswahl 25 January 1987]]), the German government unofficially decides not to take SNR-300 into operation just yet.
At this point neither the country government, nor the local state government (MP from 1978 to 1998 was [[Johannes Rau]]) want the facility to become operational. Plans for a second facility, '''SNR-2''', planned to produce 1,500 megawatts, are officially cancelled around this time.
* 26 April 1986: [[Chernobyl disaster]].
* 1991: The official cancellation of the SNR-300 is offered on 21 March. The demolition of parts of the facility costs another 75 million euros. The unused machinery is put on sale. The reactor core is transferred to storage elsewhere. The breeder material, already bought for the operation of the facility, is transferred to France where it is mixed into [[MOX fuel]], which is used by a number of [[Nuclear power in France|France's nuclear reactors]].
* early 1990s: 12 unused blanket fuel assemblies from SNR-300, containing [[depleted uranium]], were transferred to [[James Acord]] and housed at [[Hanford Site|Hanford Nuclear Reservation]].<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.ans.org/pubs/magazines/nn/docs/2002-11-3.pdf | title=James Acord: Atomic artist | access-date=2012-02-14 | archive-date=2015-06-11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611004729/http://www2.ans.org/pubs/magazines/nn/docs/2002-11-3.pdf | url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 1995: The facility is put up for auction by way of an announcement in the newspapers. The Dutch investor/developer [[Hennie van der Most]] buys the property for 2.5 million euros. The site is transformed into an amusement park named '''Kernwasser Wunderland''' ("Nuclear water Wonderland"). It includes a [[hotel]] with 400 beds. In 2005 it was renamed into ''[[Wunderland Kalkar]]'' ("Wonderland Kalkar").

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{stack|{{Portal|Germany|Energy|Nuclear technology}}}}
{{Commons category|Kalkar Nuclear Power Plant}}
* [http://www.wunderlandkalkar.eu/ wunderlandkalkar.eu]
* [http://www.wdr.de/tv/aks/sowars/20060325_kalkar.jhtml wdr.de]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20021209225830/http://www.askoxford.com/languages/culturevulture/germany/nuclear/ askoxford.com]
* [http://econtent.unm.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/nuceng&CISOPTR=76&filename=76.pdf Plant Wall Chart]

{{Coord|51|45|47|N|6|19|37|E|region:DE-NW_type:landmark|display=title}}

{{Nuclear power in Germany}}
{{Joint undertakings of the European Union and European Atomic Energy Community|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Joint undertakings of the European Union and European Atomic Energy Community]]
[[Category:Former nuclear power stations in Germany]]
[[Category:Unfinished nuclear reactors]]
[[Category:Liquid metal fast reactors]]
[[Category:Economy of North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Kleve (district)]]