Storage of reprocessing waste at Isar interim storage facility approved

Isar interim fuel storage facility Source: Christopher Mick

The licensing procedure for the interim storage of German waste from the reprocessing plant in Sellafield, UK, at the site of the Isar interim storage facility in Niederaichbach, Bavaria, has been completed. The operator of the interim storage facility, BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH, has fulfilled the necessary safety requirements pursuant to atomic law, and the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) has granted the relevant storage licence. A transport licence is required to repatriate the seven containers with high-level radioactive waste from Sellafield; BASE is currently reviewing the application documents.

Repatriation of waste from reprocessing

The delivery of fuel elements for reprocessing from German nuclear power plants has been prohibited since 2005. To this day, however, some vitrified waste from the reprocessing of fuel elements from German nuclear power plants is still at storage in the United Kingdom and France. Due to both obligations under international law and contractual agreements, the operators of the now shut-down German nuclear power plants as the waste owners are obliged to take back this waste.

In 2015, the federal government, the Länder and the energy supply companies agreed to temporarily store the remaining radioactive waste from reprocessing in Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg to await final disposal. A total of 14 casks with high-level radioactive waste from the UK and four from France are yet to be distributed to the interim storage facilities at Philippsburg (Baden-Württemberg), Brokdorf (Schleswig-Holstein) and Isar (Bavaria). Most recently, six casks from Sellafield had been brought to Biblis (Hesse) at the beginning of November 2020.

Transport licence still pending

The Hanau-based transport company Orano NCS GmbH has applied for a licence to return the vitrified high-level radioactive waste from Sellafield to the Isar interim storage facility in Niederaichbach, Bavaria. BASE is currently reviewing the submitted documents. However, the applicant has not yet provided all the evidence required for compliance with the safety requirements. The duration of this procedure is largely in the hands of the applicant. The applicant must submit all documentary evidence in full and with the required level of detail.

Container storage locations at the Isar interim storage facility

A total of 152 cask spaces have been approved for the Isar interim storage facility; 88 are currently occupied. As things stand, 124 cask spaces will be needed (including the seven casks from the reprocessing plant in Sellafield), 28 fewer than the total number approved.