A licence has been granted for the transport of high- level radioactive waste from the reprocessing of fuel elements from German nuclear power plants, which is to be taken back from the UK. Following an audit by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, the transport company Orano NCS GmbH has demonstrated compliance with all the necessary safety requirements.

A licence has been granted for the transport of a maximum of seven transport and storage casks of high- level radioactive waste by sea and onward transport by rail from 1 March 2025 up to and including 31 December 2025. When and by which route the transport will take place is to be determined by the applicant in consultation with the relevant federal and state safety authorities and the Federal Railway Authority, which is the competent nuclear regulatory authority for rail transport. The repatriation of German waste is a binding requirement under international law.

Storage licence for the Isar interim storage facility granted

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management granted a licence in April 2023 for the storage of the vitrified waste at the Isar interim storage facility. The return of these seven casks, however, will not result in the licensed maximum number of casks for high- level radioactive waste at the Isar site being exceeded. The Isar interim storage facility is licensed to hold a maximum of 152 casks of high- level radioactive waste. According to current plans, there will be 28 fewer high- level waste casks there than originally intended, including the casks containing the vitrified waste.

Background: Repatriation of German radioactive waste

Until 2005, German utilities shipped spent fuel from their nuclear power plants to France (La Hague) and the UK (Sellafield) for reprocessing. The resulting liquid waste was then melted down into glass and has since been gradually returned to Germany. The last shipment of this waste from France was returned in November 2024. However, there is still some vitrified radioactive waste from German nuclear power plants in the UK and two shipments are required to repatriate it. The first of these two shipments is the one that has now been approved for shipment to the Isar Interim Storage Facility.

Since 2005, the delivery of spent fuel elements from German nuclear power plants for so-called reprocessing has been prohibited. Instead, an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act obliged nuclear power plant operators to store the spent fuel elements in interim storage facilities at the reactor sites.

Why repatriation to Niederaichbach?

Until 2011, the waste producers transported the radioactive residues from reprocessing to the Gorleben interim storage facility in Lower Saxony. Since then, 108 casks of vitrified radioactive waste have been stored there. This is already a large proportion of the total waste to be returned from reprocessing. Gorleben is also the only site that has been partially investigated in the past for its suitability as a repository for high- level radioactive waste. These geological investigations were completed in 2012 and the site is no longer part of the search for a repository site under the Site Selection Act.

With the Site Selection Act, which the Bundestag passed by a large majority in 2013, the legislator also amended the Atomic Energy Act: the remaining vitrified waste abroad is to be stored in interim storage facilities at the nuclear power plant sites. The aim was to avoid giving the impression that Gorleben had already been chosen as the site for a final storage facility during the open-ended search for a repository site. In 2015, the federal government, the federal states and the utility companies agreed to store the remaining radioactive waste in Biblis, Brokdorf, Niederaichbach (Isar nuclear power plant) and Philippsburg.