Page 174 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 155

according to the proponents would ensure that the site will be financially viable.
A more detailed analysis of this proposal is given in Long Island Press (2015).

6.2.1.4 Never operated NPPS
Zwentendorf was the first and only commercial NPP built in Austria. Although its
construction had been completed, the reactor never started operation due to a general
referendum. The licenses for the plant site, some infrastructure, and other main grid
installations were reused for two newly erected blocks of coal-fired power plants
nearby at Durnrohr.
For many years, the unused plant served as a stock of spare components for three
German NPPs of the same model. In 2005, Zwentendorf was purchased by Austria’s
Energieversorgung Nieder€ osterreich (EVN), who installed a training center onsite:
nuclear operators from Germany could be trained to operate a reactor in a realistic
environment and in areas that are normally inaccessible in an operating reactor.
In 2009 a Solar Power Plant was commissioned at Zwentendorf: since then, 1000
panels have contributed some 180 MWh per year to the electric grid.
In association with the Vienna Technical University a photo-voltaic (PV) research
center was installed at Zwentendorf. This center includes 190 KW PV equipment in
two modules and solar trackers.
EVN allows visits to the complex, for example, for filming, photography, and other
events (EVN, 2010). The Vienna-based company RIENTEC, in cooperation with
EVN, has established this plant as a training center that offers unrestricted and radi-
ation free accessibility (including the reactor itself ), which is not available in an oper-
ating NPP. Zwentendorf provides training in the areas of management, operation,
maintenance and technical support of a NPP to the international nuclear community
including classrooms and hands-on activities (RIENTEC, 2018).
The Philippines had completed the Bataan NPP in 1984, at which point testing of
systems began. In 1986, the government supporting the project was overthrown and,
as a reaction to the Chernobyl accident that year, the new government had the plant
mothballed. The Bataan NPP has been maintained since then, but was never fueled for
operation. The uranium was removed by 1997. Due to the high cost of maintaining the
plant, the government announced in 2011 that the plant would be converted into a
tourist attraction. The tour includes the use of an adjacent private beach, which has
some accommodation and recreation facilities (BBC, 2011).

6.2.1.5 Berkeley NPP, UK to host a college
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has secured funding for a new col-
lege campus at the decommissioning NPP at Berkeley, UK.
The Gloucestershire Renewable Energy, Engineering, and Nuclear (GREEN) pro-
ject has been awarded £5m from the UK government as the first phase of an antici-
pated £40m investment. Additional to a £5m investment from the college, these
monies will be spent to develop 6 ha of the delicensed part of Berkeley site and turn
it into a state-of-the-art campus.