Nuclear activities at KIT: reactor safety research and safety research for waste

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is the merger of the former Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), and the Technical University of Karlsruhe, into one single organisation, inheriting the previously existing missions of research, higher education and innovation, and creating a huge potential for synergies, that is now being successfully exploited step by step. One of the major strategic focuses of KIT is energy research, integrating more than 1 250 researchers from both KIT predecessors in the KIT Energy Centre.Within the KIT Energy Centre, the topic NUKLEAR is one of currently seven topics, together covering the integral field of energy including system and society aspects. Currently, the KIT Programme Nuclear Waste Disposal and Safety consists of about 250 research, technical, and management staff. After the reactor accident in Fukushima (Japan) in 2011, the German parliament decided with support of a broad societal consensus to terminate nuclear electricity production with the last nuclear power plant to be shutdown in 2022. Regarding the final disposal of radioactive waste, the Konrad repository is approved and will be available for the disposal of low and intermediate level waste at the end of this decade. A new federal law is expected to be issued in the near future to re-define the site selection procedure for the German high level waste repository. It seems clear that various host rock formations will be investigated. The long-term safety of such a repository is one of the most challenging aspects about nuclear energy in public debates. For these reasons, nuclear expertise in Germany must be maintained, focusing in particular on research into reactor safety and final disposal. Highest safety requirements have to be applied to the operation, shutdown and decommissioning of nuclear power plants and to the final disposal of radioactive waste