Transcript Management of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel, Bilance of

Management of Radioactive
Waste and Spent Fuel in
Germany
Ulrich Alter,
 Federal Ministry for the
Environment and Nuclear Safety
 Bonn, Germany

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Content
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Inventory of Spent Fuel
Balance of Reprocessing
vitrified high active waste from
reprocessing
on–site storage facilities
Reuse of Plutonium as MOX – fuel
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Amounts of Spent Fuel (December 2009)
Since the commissioning of the first
nuclear power reactor in 1960 until
the end of 2009 a total of about
13,000 tonnes of spent fuel
has been produced in Germany.
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Production of Spent Fuel
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Annual unloading per reactor:
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Total annual production in Germany: 50 … 400 tHM/a
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Produced by end 2009:
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Storage (December 2009):
6,427 tHM
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Reprocessing
6,670 tHM
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Expected quantity produced by 2025: ~ 17,200 tHM
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15 to 30 tHM/a
13,097 tHM
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Amounts of Spent Fuel (December 2009)
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The major part of the fuel has been
shipped to Cap de la Hague, Sellafield and
Mayak for reprocessing, a total of 6,670
tonnes of spent fuel.
At the end of the year 2009, roughly 6,430
tonnes of spent fuel were stored in
domestic wet or dry storage facilities.
3,420 tonnes (53 % of the quantity) were
stored in wet storage pools, particularly
in the reactor buildings.
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Amounts of Spent Fuel (December 2009)
The remaining 3,010 tonnes
(47 % of the quantity) were
stored in casks at dry storage
facilities
 Ahaus, Gorleben and Lubmin
 12 on-site storage facilities
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Balance of Reprocessing
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Balance of Reprocessing
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The shipments to the reprocessing
facilities were based on contracts
that had been concluded in 1979 and
once more in 1989 by the German
utilities with COGEMA and BNFL
covering the reprocessing of spent
fuel assemblies from German
nuclear power plants.
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Balance of Reprocessing
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The contracts contained obligations
to take back radioactive wastes and
the separated Plutonium.
A relatively small amount of spent
fuel (nearly 200 tonnes) had been
reprocessed between 1971 and 1990
in the domestic pilot reprocessing
plant at Karlsruhe.
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Shipments of Spent Fuel
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The very first shipment to the
reprocessing facilities La Hague in
France and Sellafield in United
Kingdom started in 1973.
The final delivery of spent fuel
assemblies was terminated on July
1st, 2005.
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Shipments of spent fuel to AREVA NC
t SM pro Jahr
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
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Balance of Reprocessing
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With regard to the quantities of
spent fuel contracted for
reprocessing between the German
utilities and the reprocessing plants
of Cogema (5,400 tonnes)
and BNFL (850 tonnes),
most of the separated plutonium will
arise in France
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Balance of Reprocessing
From nuclear power plants in the
eastern part of Germany
a total amount of
293 tonnes of spent fuel
was sent to the reprocessing
facility in Mayak.
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Vitrified high active waste from
reprocessing facilities
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Vitrified high active waste from the reprocessing
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The radioactive waste streams that will
return to Germany started in 1996.
The largest part of waste comes from
France. Roughly 80 % of the vitrified high
active waste from the reprocessing of
spent fuel from German nuclear power
plants in France was shipped during the
last years - from 1996 to 2008 - to the
interim storage facility in Gorleben
(86 casks with
2408 canisters).
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Vitrified high active waste from the reprocessing
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It is planned to ship the residual
vitrified waste from France back to
Germany until 2011 - exactly 11
casks in 2010 and the last 11 casks
up to the end of the year 2011.
Shipments from the UK are
expected to start in 2014 / 2015.
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Shipment of 12 CASTOR-HAW-Casks, TBL Gorleben in 2006
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Returning Reprocessing Wastes
Gorleben interim storage facility, the storage
facility for vitrified waste from reprocessing
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on-site storage facilities
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on-site storage facilities
Since 1983 nuclear licences had been
granted for GORLEBEN and AHAUS,
central storage facilities for spent
fuel assemblies.
The first shipment with CASTORcasks started in 1993 to AHAUS and
in 1995 to GORLEBEN.
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on-site storage facilities
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By the end of 2003, nuclear licences
had been granted for on-site storage
facilities for spent fuel assemblies
at twelve nuclear power plant sites.
They are designed as dry storage
facilities in which transport and
storage containers loaded with
spent fuel assemblies are emplaced.
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on-site storage facilities
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Starting in 2007, all on-site storage
facilities went into operation.
In 2005, the operator of the
Obrigheim nuclear power plant
applied for a licence for dry on-site
storage of a small number of 15
casks.
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on-site storage facilities
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The Federal Office for Radiation
Protection is the competent
authority for the licensing of spent
fuel storage facilities. According to
Section 6 para. 2 no. 4 Atomic
Energy Act, it has to be proven that
necessary protection against
external events exists.
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on-site storage facilities
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This includes the crash of a large
aircraft onto the spent fuel storage
facility.
Expert calculations – carried out as
a reaction to the events of
September 11th, 2001 – proved that
in case of the crash of a large
aircraft safety can be guaranteed.
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on-site storage facilities
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The capacities of the storage
facilities are different.
Limitations exist for the duration of
storage, the number and type of fuel
casks, the thermal capacity and the
total activity.
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Power Plant
Mass [Mg]
No. of casks
Biblis
1400
135
Brokdorf
1000
100
Brunsbüttel
450
80
Grafenrheinfeld
800
88
Grohnde
1000
100
Gundremmingen
1850
192
Isar
1500
152
Krümmel
775
80
Lingen
1250
130
Neckarwestheim
1600
151
Philippsburg
1600
152
Unterweser
800
80
14;025
1;440
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on-site storage facilities
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on-site storage facilities
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Two different design concepts for
the storage building, the WTI and
the STEAG concept, are applied for
the storage of spent fuel in
Germany.
The two concepts are not
fundamentally different but
represent alternatives of the same
basic concept.
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on-site storage facilities
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The use of either the STEAG
concept or the WTI concept was the
decision of the applicants. Both
concepts fulfil the requirements for
the safe storage according to the
Atomic Energy Act.
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on-site storage facilities
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The transport and storage casks
guarantee that the main safety
criteria are met. The main function
of the storage hall is to provide
protection against weather
conditions and to assure heat
removal.
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on-site storage facilities
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It should be mentioned that beside
the STEAG and WTI concepts an
individual tunnel concept is being
used at Neckarwestheim.
This special underground solution
was developed to accommodate the
specific site situation of the nuclear
power plant.
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on-site storage facilities
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The licensing requirements for the
storage facility of spent fuel from VVER440 reactors in the eastern part of
Germany were the same as for spent fuel
from other reactors.
The transport and storage casks for
VVER-440 spent fuel assemblies are
licensed or approved according to the
German transport regulations which are
fully consistent with the IAEA transport
regulations TS-R-1.
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on-site storage facilities
The last spent fuel assemblies from
the wet storage facility
(Central Waste Storage Nuclear Fuel,
ZLN) in Greifswald / Lubmin
were transferred to the ZLN dry
storage facility at the same site on
15-06-2006.
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Storage Facilities (1/4)
Interim Storage Facility Emsland, STEAG
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Storage Facilities (2/4)
Interim Storage Facility Emsland
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WTI, Gundremmingen (3/4)
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Tunnel – concept, GKN (4/4)
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wet storage facility, ZAB
dry storage, Z L N
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Plutonium as MOX - Fuel
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Reuse of Plutonium as MOX - fuel
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This will ensure that during the
remaining operation time of the
German nuclear power plants the
recovered Plutonium will be in total
processed into mixed-oxide (MOX)
fuel assemblies and subsequently
irradiated in the existing nuclear
power plants.
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Reuse of Plutonium as MOX - fuel
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About 40 tonnes of fissile plutonium
will be separated by reprocessing of
German spent fuel. About 965 tHM of
fresh MOX fuel are already or will be
fabricated from these 40 tHM of fissile
Plutonium. After reuse in nuclear
power plants in Germany, which have a
license to use MOX, the spent MOX fuel
will be stored until final disposal.
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Reuse of Plutonium as MOX - fuel
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The reuse of Plutonium as MOX fuel
in the past and in the future is the
basis for a step by step reduction of
the German Plutonium inventory.
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… use of MOX – Fuel, 1986 to 2016
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Reduction of Pu-fiss Stock by Use of MOX Fuel
20000
15000
10000
5000
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12
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20
10
20
09
20
08
20
07
20
06
20
05
20
04
20
03
20
02
20
01
0
20
Property of Pu-fiss [kg]
25000
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Ongoing Reuse of Separated Plutonium
Sufficient capacity in German Nuclear Power
Plants for reuse
Possible delay only if problems in MOX Fuel
Facilities arise
Transfer of all separated Plutonium in MOX fuel
elements expected until 2014
All spent MOX fuel elements in fuel pools
expected until 2017/2018
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Thank you very much
for your attention
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