Protection goals of decommissioning

The planned measures of the decommissioning concept need to be suitable to isolate the radioactive waste from the biosphere as best as and for as long as possible. Releases that cannot be prevented need to be

• as low as possible and
• delayed for such a long period

that the following protection goals in terms of radiation exposure to man and environment are complied with.

Protection goals of decommissioning

The following radiation protection objectives apply to decommissioning:

• to avoid each unnecessary radiation exposure or contamination of persons, real assets or the environment and
• to keep each radiation exposure or contamination of persons, real assets or the environment as low as possible observing the state of the art of science and technology and taking into account all circumstances of the individual case also below the established limit values.

The following objectives also apply:

• Possible depressions at the Earth's surface as a result of convergence of the residual cavities in the former mine need to be limited.
• A damaging pollution of the groundwater or another adverse change of its characteristics needs to be avoided.

Criticality safety (that is, exclusion of nuclear chain reaction development) for the radionuclides disposed of needs to be guaranteed for the long term too.

The decommissioning concept for the repository is designed in such a manner that these protection goals are complied with. The same applies to the post-operational phase, i.e. for the period following the decommissioning of the Morsleben repository.

While measures are taken to convert and decommission the repository, the dose limits set out in the provisions of the Radiation Protection Ordinance need to be complied with to protect man and environment.