Radioactive waste management at Eram

According to present plans and contractual arrangements, approx. 25,000 m3 of waste from nuclear power plant operation, some 10,000 m3 of plant and decommissioning waste from the Greifswald and Rheinsberg plants, both of them shut down, and some 5000 m3 of radioactive waste from the state collection centers, research establishments, and other sources required to collect and deliver their waste arisings are to be stored in the Morsleben radioactive waste repository (Eram). Operation of the Morsleben repository especially helps in the management of so-called old waste which, for the time being, is stored either in-plant or kept in out-of-plant interim stores. Eram has accepted radioactive waste for more than twenty-five years, albeit with a few interruptions. After the last interruption in February 1991, Eram resumed operation of January 13, 1994. In its current period of operation between January 1994 and June 2000, some 40,000 m3 of radioactive waste are to be stored in the repository. The end of the first quarter of 1997 will make the midpoint of this period; for this reason, some selected aspects and results of emplacement operations over this period of time will be reported. In summary, operation of the Morsleben repository for radioactive waste (Eram) in the period between January 1994 and December 1996 has been almost without problems. All waste registered for final storage in Eram was accepted and managed in due course. (orig.)