Back-up generators from German plant headed for Finland

The Krümmel plant had six emergency diesel generators to ensure the plant's power supply in the event of a loss of external power. Three of them were V16 sixteen-cylinder diesel engines, while the other three were V20 twenty-cylinder diesel engines.

The three V16 units have now been sold to Finland's Loviisa nuclear power plant, which is operated by Fortum, Vattenfall announced.

Two of the engines have already been removed from the power plant and have been delivered to the Loviisa plant. The third engine will be removed from the Krümmel plant and shipped to Finland once Vattenfall has received the relevant decommissioning and dismantling permit.

Once installed at Loviisa, the three generators will serve as reserve emergency power at the plant, which comprises two Soviet-designed VVER-440 type pressurised water reactors.

Loviisa unit 1 began commercial operation in 1977, with unit 2 following in 1981. The operating licences for the units were renewed in 1998 and 2007, respectively. In March this year, Fortum submitted an application to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment to operate both units until the end of 2050. The current operating licences expire at the end of 2027 and 2030, respectively.

The Krümmel plant - comprising a single 1260 MWe boiling water reactor - is jointly owned by Vattenfall and EOn. The plant, which is operated by Vattenfall, was connected to the grid in 1983, but was out of service for several years. It suffered a transformer fire in 2007 and, following repairs, was restarted in June 2009 but taken offline again the following month due to a transformer fault.

Krümmel was one of eight older power reactors that had their operating licences withdrawn by the federal government shortly after the Fukushima accident in Japan in March 2011.

Vattenfall submitted an application in August 2015 to decommission and dismantle the Krümmel plant.