Use of Dual Purpose Cask by the Fuel Management at the Greifswald and Rheinsberg Npps

Abstract

Directly after the unification of the two German states, the operation and all construction work at all nuclear sites in the former East Germany were stopped. In 1990/91 decisions were taken to decommission all plants, mainly due to lack of political acceptance and secured financial basis. A cornerstone in these decommissioning activities is the management of the nuclear fuel. At the time of shut down spent fuel was present in all NPP units, i.e. Rheinsberg, Greifswald 1–5 and in a wet fuel storage on the Greifswald site. In addition some standard fuel elements were present on both sites. In order to create clear conditions and fewer safety restrictions for the dismantling, it was necessary to remove the fuel and establish an interim storage, since the existing wet storage was not designed as an interim storage. In order to solve this issue (fuel removal) the use of the dual purpose cask ‘CASTOR’ was selected. With this cask it is possible to transport radioactive materials and also to utilise it for dry interim storage (30–40 y). To allow the use of this cask for WWER type of spent fuel elements it was necessary to obtain several different licences, i.e. adaptation of internal design, loading of fuel, handling and transport of the cask and interim storage. It was also necessary to resolve several technical issues by full scale testing. Today all licences have been obtained and the loading of the fuel into the interim storage on site is being carried out.