Onsite storage facilities for spent fuel from nuclear power plants in Germany

The Act on the Structured Phase-out of the Utilisation of Nuclear Energy for the Commercial Generation of Electricity entered into force on 22 April 2002. The key points of this agreement and the respective act relevant to spent fuel management in Germany are (a) reprocessing will be discontinued and replaced by direct disposal of spent fuel elements and (b) the delivery of irradiated fuel elements to La Hague and Sellafield for reprocessing will be terminated by the middle of 2005. With regard to direct disposal of spent fuel, a remaining period of several decades still needs to be bridged, depending on the availability of a disposal facility and the length of time required for a decrease of the decay heat until disposal. The Federal Government's concept envisages that for this purpose, spent fuel should be placed in containers in storage at the nuclear power plant sites where they are generated. After that they shall be conditioned and disposed of. By the end of 2003, nuclear licenses had been granted to the decentralised storage facilities for spent fuel assemblies at twelve nuclear power plant sites - Brunsbuettel, Brokdorf, Kruemmel, Unterweser, Grohnde, Emsland, Biblis, Neckarwestheim, Philippsburg, Grafenrheinfeld, Isar and Gundremmingen. The storage facilities are either under construction or already complete (Emsland). It was necessary to erect four temporary storage facilities at four power plant sites as a buffer for six years in maximum until the commissioning of onsite storage facilities will be completed. Basically, two design options were applied for the storage facilities. In the first option the storage building consists of two parts being separated by a wall in the middle of the building. The wall thickness is approximately 85 cm, and the roof thickness approximately 55 cm. In the other concept, the storage buildings have no separating wall. The wall thickness is approximately 120 cm, and the roof thickness approximately 130 cm. Each of the individual storage facilities has a capacity of between 80 and 192 storage positions for suitable transport and storage containers. The storage facility at Neckarwestheim is a special case, where the containers will be stored in two tunnels lined with gunite. This special underground solution was developed to accommodate the specific situation of the site. As a transitional solution until the on-site storage facilities are complete, an in order to avoid any disposal shortfalls, four nuclear power plants have applied for temporary storage facilities. For the Biblis, Neckarwestheim, Philippsburg and Kruemmel nuclear power plants the licences for the temporary storage facilities have already been granted, and 63 containers have already been emplaced up to December 31, 2005. The legal basis for the licensing of decentralized storage facilities is given in paragraph 6 of the Atomic Energy Act. All facilities under the regime of paragraph 6 Atomic Energy Act have also to undergo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) when applied for after March 15, 1999. Additionally, a license pursuant to planning and building law according to the respective federal state building regulations is required for the construction of the storage building. The utilities as generators of spent fuel and radioactive waste are responsible for the development, construction and operation of storage facilities. The responsibility for the licensing of nuclear fuel storage rests with the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), the responsibility for the licensing of construction of a storage building, independent of the type (storage building, storage tunnel, storage area and concrete encasements), rests with the respective federal state building authority; and the responsibility for the supervision during operation rests with the authority of the respective federal state executing the atomic regulatory framework. Pursuant to paragraph 6 Atomic Energy Act a licence shall be granted if there is a need for such storage and if the 'precaution against damages according to the state-of-the-art' as the most extensive complex is verified