On 25 April 2017, the operator responsibilities for the Asse II mine as well as the Konrad and Morsleben repositories were transferred to the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH, BGE). This website of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) will therefore no longer be updated and displays the status as on 24 April 2017. You will find current information at the BGE: www.bge.de

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Radioactive waste

Radioactivity and radiation

Radioactivity is a term for the property of certain atomic nuclei to transform themselves into other nuclei without external influence. During this process, energetic radiation (alpha, beta, gamma or neutron radiation) is emitted. There are both natural radionuclides and artificial radionuclides generated by nuclear processes.

Low-level radioactive waste is burnt in an incineration plant

Conditioning and containers

Radioactive waste is treated and processed in a special way before it is accepted for disposal in a repository. The term for the treatment and packaging of the radioactive waste is conditioning. To safely package all types of radioactive waste with negligible heat generation and at the same time meet the waste acceptance requirements, various methods or facilities are available for conditioning, depending on the consistency, size and quality of the waste.

The interim storage facility in Karlsruhe

Interim Storage of radioactive waste

Radioactive waste having accrued and still accruing in Germany will be disposed of in Germany. Up until now there has been no operable, licensed radioactive waste repository available in Germany. Therefore, radioactive waste accruing will be stored in storage halls especially built for this purpose, so-called interim storage facilities, until they can be disposed of in a repository.

Transfer of operator responsibilities

On 25 April 2017, the operator responsibilities for the Asse II mine as well as the Konrad and Morsleben repositories were transferred to the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH, BGE). Previously, the responsibility for the projects was with the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS). The foundations for the change of operatorship are laid down in the "Act on the Realignment of the Organisational Structures in the Field of Radioactive Waste Disposal", which became effective on 30 July 2016. The BfS focusses on the federal tasks of radiation protection, for example in the field of defence against nuclear hazards, medical research, mobile communication, UV protection or the measuring networks for environmental radioactivity.

Nuclear power plant Grohnde

Origin of radioactive waste

According to the plan-approval decision, 303,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste with negligible heat generation (low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste) can be disposed of in the Konrad mine. That is about 50 per cent of all German radioactive waste. It includes only about 1 per cent of the total activity, however.

A phase of product assurance

Waste package quality control

To ensure safety, the radioactive waste is subjected to several examination procedures before it is disposed of. A combined control of conditioning (packaging in a manner meeting the requirements for disposal) and random sampling has proven their worth.

It is expected that 20 freight wagons will arrive at the repository site every week.

Transports to the Konrad repository

Up until now, there is no operable and licensed repository for radioactive waste available in Germany. Already today, however, waste has been stored in decentralised interim storage facilities. For the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) it is natural to examine possible risks emanating from the transports of radioactive waste to the Konrad repository and to have as much knowledge of them as possible – irrespective of the fact that the BfS does neither carry out nor license the transports.

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