Its final decommissioning has been postponed for a period of 40 years and the plant was placed into a safe enclosure configuration in 2005.

It was built by the Dutch government, mainly as a means to obtain know-how about the construction and exploitation of a nuclear power plant.

With no prospect of the construction of new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands, Dodewaard's function as a research centre became superfluous.

[3] In May 2002 a decommissioning license was granted to Gemeenschappelijke Kernenergiecentrale Nederland (GKN), the operator of the nuclear power plant.

[5], p. 174 On 21 May 2020 a fire broke out on the roof of the outer containment building which took several hours to bring under control.