Twenty Years of Experience in Spent Fuel Shipment from German Nuclear Power Plants—A View of the Competent Authority

Abstract

A survey of the transport of spent fuel in and from Germany during the last 20 years is presented. The spent fuel is now transported from the German nuclear power facilities to the reprocessing plants in France and the United Kingdom. In the past, there were also shipments to the former reprocessing plant WAK Karlsruhe (Germany), to the long-term storage facility CLAB (Sweden) and also from the former German Democratic Republic to the USSR. The transport of the spent fuel is carried out in specially built flasks requiring an extensive quality assurance programme. Due to the heavy weight of these packages, the shipments are mostly carried out by rail, but also by road and sea. An overview is given of the following matters: (i) quantities of spent fuel transport, (ii) organisation of transport, (iii) licensing matters, and (iv) reported incidents. In addition, an analysis is included of the radiation exposure for normal conditions of transport, especially of the transport workers. Difficulties and hindrances during transport are also reported.