More than 5,000 tonnes of fuel processed by Orano in France
The 13th and final rail shipment carrying vitrified high-level nuclear waste (HLW) reached an intermediate storage facility at the Philippsburg nuclear power station site in central Germany on 20 November, French nuclear fuel cycle company Orano said.
The transport settles all commitments relating to contracts for the recycling of used fuel signed between Orano and German utilities PreussenElektra, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall, since 1977.
Contracts for the treatment of used fuel were signed with the four German utilities between 1977 and 1991.
Those contracts resulted in the recycling of fuel elements from German nuclear reactors and the conditioning of residual waste.
Under the contracts, 5,310 tonnes of fuel were processed at Orano’s La Hague plant in northern France.
In accordance with the terms of the contracts, the equivalent in mass and radioactivity of waste contained in the used fuel elements was to be returned to Germany.
The waste had been in France since at least 2004. In 2005 Germany stopped the transport overseas of irradiated fuel, but old contracts had to be fulfilled.
Germany’s federal ministry for the environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety (BMU) said German nuclear power plant operators were obliged to take back radioactive waste that was generated in France during the reprocessing at La Hague of spent fuel elements from German nuclear power plants.
