Storage
Medium and low-level radioactive waste is currently stored at the on-site storage facilities and at state collecting points.
The majority of the central and decentralised storage facilities are operated by the federally owned Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung (BGZ). The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) is responsible for licensing the storage facilities. Supervision of proper operation is carried out by the competent authorities of the Länder concerned.
Our tasks
GRS studies, evaluates and anticipates phenomena that may have an impact on safety during the storage of radioactive waste, starting with the question of how nuclear fuel in spent fuel assemblies changes over many decades to securing storage facilities against attacks and sabotage. We use our knowledge to advise the federal government and Land authorities on the storage of low, intermediate and high-level radioactive waste. Our work covers the following topics:
- long-term behaviour of fuel assemblies
- calculations on shielding and inventory of radioactive waste
- fundamental research on material behaviour
- collection, examination and evaluation of mass balances of irradiated fuel assemblies and of waste from reprocessing
- methods for securing and monitoring storage facilities
- participation in national and international committees
Project highlights Storage
Die Zwischenlagerung hochradioaktiver Abfälle wird sich in Deutschland bis in die zweite Hälfte dieses Jahrhunderts hineinziehen, da ein geeignetes Endlager Stand heute vorher nicht zur Verfügung stehen wird. Sowohl die derzeit zwischengelagerten Brennelemente als auch die Strukturkomponenten der verwendeten Transport- und Lagerbehälter sind daher der Strahlung, aber auch thermischen oder mechanischen Belastungen deutlich länger ausgesetzt, als man ursprünglich angenommen hatte. Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus der Abteilung Stilllegung und Zwischenlagerung beschäftigen sich daher in einem laufenden Forschungsprojekt damit, wie sich die Belastung von Brennelementen und deren Komponenten während einer verlängerten Zwischenlagerung bewerten lässt.
On 4 August 2020, a devastating explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, the cause of which was the improper storage of chemicals. After Germany had already supported Lebanon in the management of chemicals in the aftermath of this explosion, the Lebanese authorities approached Germany with an additional request for support in the retrieval and safe storage of radioactive waste. Within the framework of a cooperation project funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV), the responsible Lebanese authorities are supported by experts from the BMUV and an interdisciplinary GRS team from the departments Radiation Protection and Security.
GRS scientists have dealt with this issue as part of a research project which not only comprised investigations regarding storage casks but also studies of fuel assembly behaviour.