Improvement of Spent Fuel Transport in Europe

Abstract

Among the 200 spent fuel casks transported for the French utility EDF in 1997, about 37% presented problems of contamination. Contamination occured with consignments of spent fuel for Great Britain and also from Germany and Switzerland. In the absence of any real improvement by the beginning of 1998, these consignments were stopped in May of the same year, although it was proved that this situation had not represented any danger to the population and environment. The main cause of contamination was the lack of precautions during flask loading operations. Through new measures to improve flask operations, to increase radiological controls and to implement better communication between the different participants the consignments of spent fuel have been progressively resumed, from July 1999 in France and April 2001 in Germany.