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Transport - Storage - Surveillance of Radioactive Waste

Safety of Nucleare Waste Management

Interim storage facility for nuclear fuel: The licensing procedure

A licence from the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) is required to store nuclear fuel at an interim storage facility outside a nuclear power plant. BASE assesses whether the safety required for storage is guaranteed according to the state of the art in science and technology. The responsibility for ensuring that all the necessary licences are available at all times lies with the owner of the radioactive material, or the operator of the interim storage facility as the licence holder.

Parties involved in the approval process:

Applicant

Information provided by the applicant

To obtain a licence for an interim storage facility, the applicant must explain, among other things:

  • Which nuclear fuels (type and quantity) are to be stored in which type of casks?
  • How long is the nuclear fuel to remain in storage?
  • How is the storage facility designed to be built?
  • What technical equipment will the storage facility have?
  • Who carries out the storage?
  • What safeguards are planned?

BASE

Examination by BASE

According to Section 6 of the Atomic Energy Act, BASE is the competent licensing authority for the storage of nuclear fuel at centralised and decentralised interim storage facilities. In the scope of the licensing procedure, BASE examines

  • the safety of storage in accordance with the state of the art in science and technology,
  • protection against disruptions or other third-party interference (SEWD),
  • the reliability of the applicant and the persons in charge of the management and supervision of the storage,
  • the professional competence of the persons in charge of the management and supervision of the storage, and
  • the necessary financial security (liability insurance).

Public

Public participation

The need for public participation arises from the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (UVPG) and the Nuclear Licensing Procedure Ordinance (AtVfV). They stipulate that the public must always be involved if the application is to be classified as requiring an EIA pursuant to Section 6 of the Atomic Energy Act, and an environmental impact assessment must therefore be carried out. This applies to all new applications as a rule. As regards subsequent amendments, the EIA obligation, and thus the need for public participation, must be examined on a case-by-case basis

Public participation is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the AtVfV, and comprises the following steps:

  • Announcement of the project in the Federal Gazette and in local daily newspapers
  • Public display of the project documents by BASE: During the display period of two months, affected citizens can draw up objections on this basis, and send them to BASE.
  • Discussion meeting: The objections are included in the licencing procedure, and are discussed with the objectors at a hearing.

State authorities

Participation of the competent state authorities

BASE cooperates with the federal state authorities concerned, in particular the nuclear supervisory authorities, safety and construction authorities, already during the licensing procedure, which usually lasts several years. If necessary, BASE will ask for information. The authorities, for their part, can ask questions about the procedure and voice their concerns at any time.

If BASE concludes its substantive reviews with a positive result, the draft licence will go through a formal authority involvement procedure. This begins with BASE submitting the draft licence to its superior authority, the Federal Environment Ministry, for review. The competent federal state authorities will receive the draft for commenting. Any objections or requests for changes are examined by BASE.

After the authorities have been involved, the applicant has the right to be heard: they are also given the opportunity to comment on the draft licence before it is granted.

Nuclear supervision of interim storage facilities

Supervision of the interim storage facilities under nuclear law is the responsibility of the respective competent federal state authority. The supervisory authorities of the federal states monitor compliance with the requirements for the licences issued so far. They can issue direct orders to the operators of the interim storage facilities if they detect deviations from the licences.

The interim storage facility operators can make minor changes to a facility with the consent of the respective supervisory authority. This applies in particular to the editorial adaptation of licensing documents to the current status of, for example, technical standards.

Granting of the licence

The decision on retention is a so-called bound decision (bound administrative act). This means that a licence must be granted if the requirements are met. It also means that the licensing authority has no discretion in its licencing decision.

Modification of an existing licence

Each licence for an interim storage facility shall specify

  • the authorised quantity and composition of the nuclear fuels,
  • the type of storage casks used; and
  • the technical equipment of the storage facility.

For each significant change, the operator must apply to BASE for a so-called modification licence. This may be necessary if the operator wants to

  • store nuclear fuels with a different composition than before ,
  • use storage casks of a different/modern design,
  • change the technical equipment of the storage facility, or
  • make structural changes to the storage facility.

Within the scope of a modification licence, all components of the storage facility that are affected by the requested modifications are checked in accordance with the applicable regulations.

In addition, a preliminary assessment is carried out to determine whether the change to the storage licence is serious to the extent that a new environmental impact assessment is required. The result of the preliminary assessment is published on the BASE and EIA portal websites. Should an environmental impact assessment be necessary, the public will have to be involved again.

Even in the case of modification licences, the applicant has a legal right to a licence if they fulfil all the requirements. BASE as the licencing authority has no discretionary power in this case.

Further licences

The BfS and BASE licences relate to the storage of nuclear fuel and the associated handling of nuclear fuel within the repository. In addition, a building licence must be obtained for the construction of an interim storage facility, as for any other building. The applicant must obtain this from the competent building authority.

A building licence may also be required for structural modifications for which BASE issues a nuclear modification licence. It is the responsibility of the operator, as the licence holder, to ensure that all the necessary licences have been obtained.

State of 2022.12.16

© Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management