East Germany's largest nuclear plant, five Soviet VVER-440 units at Lubmin, was shut in 1989-90 after reunification and has been under immediate dismantling by state-owned EWN since 1995. EWN now expects to finish only in the mid-2040s, with costs heading towards €10 billion due to unexpected concrete contamination and budget cuts.
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Current state
| Status | Active dismantling |
| Country | Germany |
| Location | Lubmin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |
| Site | Greifswald / Lubmin |
| Units | Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4, Unit 5 |
| Unit count | 5 |
| Reactor types | VVER-440 |
| Net capacity (MWe) | 2,040 |
| Owner / licensee | EWN Entsorgungswerk für Nuklearanlagen GmbH (federal government) |
| Decommissioning contractor | EWN |
| Strategy | Immediate dismantling |
| Final shutdown | 1990-12-18 |
| Decommissioning start | 1995 |
| Cost estimate | EUR 10bn (as of 2025-09) |
| Spent fuel | All fuel moved to the on-site Interim Storage Facility North (ISN) by May 2006. |
| Notable issue | Contaminated concrete in 'Special Building 1' exceeds clearance limits by over 100x; each extra year costs about €120m. |
Notes
Net capacity 5 x 408 MWe per WNA (unit 6 never operated, now a museum). €10bn figure from NDR headline; EWN also decommissions Rheinsberg (not counted).
Timeline
- 1989-11-24 — Unit 5 was shut down, the first of the five operating units to close. (source)
- 1990-12-18 — Unit 1, the last operating unit, was shut down. (source)
- 1995 — Dismantling of the Greifswald plant began. (source)
- 2006-05 — The last nuclear fuel was moved from Unit 3 to the adjacent interim store. (source)
- 2025-09-02 — EWN said completion would slip to the mid-2040s and costs would rise to about €10bn. (source)
The timeline is append-only: corrections are added as new entries. Stated targets appear in the current-state table, never as milestones.
Related sites
- Biblis Nuclear Power Plant (Units A and B) Active dismantling · Germany
- Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant (KBR) Active dismantling · Germany
- Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant (KKB) Active dismantling · Germany
- Chinshan Nuclear Power Plant Fuel removal · Taiwan
- Chooz A Active dismantling · France
- Crystal River Unit 3 Site restoration · United States
- Doel Nuclear Power Plant (Units 1-3) Shut down · Belgium
- Dounreay (DFR and PFR fast reactors) Active dismantling · United Kingdom
See all 72 sites in the Nuclear Decommissioning Tracker →
Sources
- EWN Entsorgungswerk für Nuklearanlagen GmbH — EWN (primary), checked 2026-10-11
- Kernkraftwerk Lubmin: 16 Jahre Stromerzeugung - 50 Jahre Rückbau — NDR, checked 2026-10-11
- Zehn Milliarden Euro: KKW-Rückbau in Lubmin wird teurer — NDR, checked 2026-10-11
- Nuclear Power in Germany — World Nuclear Association, checked 2026-10-11
- Decommissioning Nuclear Facilities — World Nuclear Association, checked 2026-10-11