Amount of radioactive wastes in the Federal Republic of Germany - waste survey for the year 1988

On December 31, 1988, about 69 800 waste packages - about 40 700 m3 - were stored in interim storage facilities. The unconditioned radioactive wastes amounted to about 11 700 m3. The volume of the conditioned radioactive wastes amounted to about 40 700 m3. Of this, the waste from nuclear research centres made up about 16 300 m3, the waste from the operation of nuclear power plants about 12 900 m3 and that from the reprocessing of spent fuel elements about 8 300 m3. A prognosis was also made of the future amount of conditioned radioactive wastes. According to this forecast, the cumulated waste package volume of radioactive wastes with negligible heat generation will be approximately in the order of 173 400 m3 up to the year 2000, whereas for heat-generating radioactive wastes a volume of about 5 800 m3 is estimated. These figures already express the waste volume reduction according to modern conditioning techniques. In 1988 a capacity of about 123 800 m3 for the interim storage of radioactive wastes was available in the Federal Republic of Germany. On December 31, 1988, an average of about 37% of this capacity was utilized by unconditioned and conditioned radioactive wastes. From the data on the expected amount of radioactive wastes and on the utilization factor of the interim storage facilities, it may be concluded that, taking an overall view, no bottlenecks in the interim storage of radioactive wastes with negligible heat generation are to be anticipated up to the planned operation of the Konrad repository in 1994. (orig./HP)