atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 10.2020

atw Vol. 65 (2020) | Issue 10 ı October
518
60 YEARS OF NUCLEAR POWER IN GERMANY
Note: This article
summarises previous
articles published in
atw about the start
of nuclear power in
Germany.
60 Years of Nuclear Power in Germany –
Starting with First Criticality
at the VAK, Kahl
Christopher Weßelmann
On 13 November 1960, 60 years ago, the reactor core of the “Kahl Experimental Nuclear Power Plant” on the
Main reaches first criticality. This event marked a milestone in the history of energy supply in Germany, then the Federal
Republic of Germany. Three years after a reactor in Germany reached first criticality for the first time ever – the Munich
Research Reactor (FRM) in Garching near Munich was critically operated on 31 October 1957 – a nuclear power plant
for electricity generation was commissioned. In the following years up to 1988, 35 further plants for electricity
generation followed, some of which covered up to one third of the electricity demand in Germany and avoided up to
150 million tonnes of CO 2 -emissions per year, among others.
Among others, the Geneva Atomic
Energy Conference in August 1955 is
mentioned as the birth of nuclear
energy in Germany. There, the
German delegation of officials and
scientists sent to Geneva became
aware of the enormous importance of
civil nuclear energy development in
the meantime and of the backlog that
the Federal Republic of Germany was
lagging behind. Two months after the
Geneva Conference, the German
Federal Ministry for Nuclear Affairs
was founded.
The first specific actions were then
cooperation agreements with the USA
and Great Britain in February and July
1956, and the elaboration of a draft
for an Atomic Energy Act, which,
however, fails at first, in July 1957, due
to the lack of a two-thirds majority
for the intended amendment of the
German “Grundgesetz”.
1956 is also the year in which
the first major research centres were
founded in the Federal Republic
of Germany. The KFA Jülich was
founded in February 1956, the GKSS
in Geesthacht in April and the KfK in
Karlsruhe in July.
In December 1957 – in the meantime,
Prof. S. Balke had become
minister, to whom nuclear energy in
Germany owes much – the Atomic
Commission adopted the first nuclear
programme, the so-called 500 MW
programme, which aimed at the
construction of experimental reactors
with this overall scope. Among the
types it already mentions the heavy
water reactor and the light water
reactor, the high-temperature reactor
and other advanced reactor lines
and is visibly struggling with the
variety of types of reactor lines. The
programme saw the role of the state in
coordi nating individual projects and
pro viding financial start-up aid in all
cases where the financial risk to
industry appeared to be unacceptably
high.
The VAK project
The first nuclear power plant in the
Federal Republic of Germany, the Kahl
experimental nuclear power plant,
was financed and operated by the
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk
AG and the Bayernwerk AG. It
was build by AEG as prime contractor
with the participation of numerous
companies, mainly the US General
Electric, on a purely com mercial basis.
At that time there was a significant
difference in this respect compared to
smaller or larger nuclear power plants
built abroad. While there, the state
had provided a con siderable part of
the necessary funds either by full
financing or by con siderable participation
and thus assumed a corresponding
financial risk, the first
step in the Federal Republic was
reserved for the private sector.
When the nuclear power pioneer
Heinrich Mandel ordered the experimental
power plant from AEG in 1958,
the mood for using this energy
source was different from today:
the Minister of Atomic Energy Franz
Josef Strauß described the peaceful
use of nuclear energy as the same
turning point in human history as
the invention of fire. Politicians
were euphoric about nuclear energy
across all parties, while power plant
operators were rather reserved.
Fossil fuels were available in abundance
and at low cost, so the
operators were reluctant to bow
to the political desire to invest in
this new, complex and therefore
expensive energy technology.
On 13 November 1960, the VAK
was the first German nuclear power
plant to achieve first criticality. As
planned, the plant was shut down on
25 November 1985. In order to
maintain the experimental character
| Fig. 1.
Construction of the „Versuchsatomkraftwerk Kahl“ (VAK), Germany, (June 1958 to November 1960).
60 Years of Nuclear Power in Germany
60 Years of Nuclear Power in Germany – Starting with First Criticality at the VAK, Kahl ı Christopher Weßelmann