THE BIG PICTURE
7recyclinginternational.com | November/December | 2020
‘This giant piece of metal will soon be
in the smelter,’ says Alexander Schlick,
managing director of online scrap
metal trade platform Schrott24.de.
The company has taken up the chal-
lenge to deal with 1 500 tonnes of
metal from a decommissioned nucle-
ar power plant in Germany.
More specifically, the parts of
the former Mühlheim-Kärlich
facility up for grabs are the
tank, rotors, two turbines
and other components.
But there is no need to
worry about radiation,
according to Schlick.
‘These are all parts of
the generator that
have not been in
contact with radio-
active material.’
The Mülheim-Kärlich plant was taken
out of operation 30 years ago after
having been used for only 30 months,
due to irregularities in the approval
process. It was located in an area
prone to earth tremors and quakes and
should never have been built there in
the first place. A legal battle over the
future of the plant lasted 10 years and
decommissioning started in 2001.
Construction of the facility took more
than ten years and the subsequent
demolition has cost EUR 750 million.
After the plant was dismantled, the
generator was initially due be sold to
Egypt for reuse. But this never hap-
pened and the components were tem-
porarily stored.
Schrott24 bought the parts and found
a recycler interested in processing the
materials.
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