Storage of spent fuel from the nuclear power plants Greifswald and Rheinsberg in the interim storage north

Full text: The nuclear power plants of the former GDR - NPP Greifswald and NPP Rheinsberg - were shut down in the year 1990 to decommission all reactors. After the shut down of the 5 units in Greifswald (Russian reactors type WWER 440) and 1 unit in Rheinsberg (Russian reactor type WWER 70) was the storage of the spent fuel the priority assignment. The units are in operation since: unit 1 1974, unit 2 1975, unit 3 1978, unit 4 1979, unit 5 1989 (putting into operation). In 1990 in NPP Greifswald existed 5037 spent fuel elements. At that time 1011 elements contained in the reactors, 1628 elements in the cooling ponds of the units and 2398 elements were stored in a wet interim storage (WIS) at the Greifswald site. At the Rheinsberg site 220 spent fuel elements existed. For starting the decommissioning the units shout be free of nuclear fuel. Therefore the fuel elements from the reactors and the cooling ponds of the NPP Greifswald were transferred from 1994 to 1996 to the WIS. A part of the low burn - up fuel elements from the putting in operation of unit 5 had been sold to the Hungarian NPP Paks. A final depository for spent nuclear fuel in Germany doesn't exist. For a long time the wet storage of nuclear fuel elements is disadvantageously. Therefore a new interim storage was built at the Greifswald site. In the Interim Storage North (ISN) the spent fuel elements are stored in CASTOR 440/84 casks. The ISN allows the conditioning and storage of the radioactive materials from the dismantling of f the nuclear power plants Greifswald and Rheinsberg. The ISN consists of 7 halls for storage of radioactive residues and 1 hall for storage of spent fuel in CASTOR 440/84 casks. Currently the spent fuel elements from the WIS were transferred - via a special equipment built in unit 3 - into CASTOR 440/84 casks and transported to the ISN for further storage. The spent fuel elements from the NPP Rheinsberg were loaded into 3 CASTOR 440/84 casks and transported to the ISN in May 2001. In hall 8 of the ISN in December 2002 are stored 26 CASTOR cask with spent fuel elements. (author)