Enlarge image
Castor casks in the Philippsburg interim storage facility
Photo: Uli Deck/ dpa
Even when a nuclear power plant goes offline, its fuel elements continue to radiate – and they remain extremely hot for a long time.
For this reason, they are normally left in a cooling basin for several years before being reloaded into Castor containers and taken to an interim storage facility.
According to SPIEGEL information, a problem apparently arose when loading such a container in the Philippsburg nuclear power plant in Baden-Württemberg.
According to this, the operator EnBW loaded a cask that contained a fuel element with radiation values that were probably too high.
The complete process, loading and closing the container, was documented by the TÜV.
In the detailed documentation of the process, however, there was no indication of the increased radiation levels.
Only now, during an audit, did the process become known.
When asked by SPIEGEL, EnBW explained that in the course of an inspection at the Philippsburg site in the course of this week, it was recognized "that when a Castor cask was loaded in the past, there was a slight deviation in the calculation of specific values for an individual spent fuel element, that was placed in this container«.
All key physical data of the fuel element were correctly documented.
"Only the underlying service life of the fuel element deviated, so that the values calculated from the key data and the service life deviate slightly from the values that would have resulted if the correct service life had been used."
From the company's point of view, this probably means: Everything is half as wild.
All requirements for loading and storage of the cask are met.
However, the company "immediately informed the responsible supervisory authority" and is already working on the process "including examining a possible formal obligation to report".
EnBW goes on to say: »The slight deviation described leads to practically no measurable difference in the dose rate of the container.
In this respect, effects on people and the environment are excluded.«
Completely switched off since the end of 2019
The cask is currently in the Philippsburg interim fuel storage facility, a reinforced concrete hall on the premises of the former power plant.
There is space for around 150 casks in two storage areas, some of which may also contain waste from the reprocessing of fuel elements from German power plants in French plants.
In extreme cases, the cask in question would have to be brought back from the interim storage facility to the power plant, where it would have to be opened and reloaded in the cooling basin.
The Philippsburg nuclear power plant in the Karlsruhe district has been completely shut down since December 31, 2019.
Unit 1, a boiling water reactor that went online in 1979, had already been taken offline in 2011.
It has been dismantled since May 2017.
Block 2, a pressurized water reactor, went into operation in 1984.
It has been demolished since January 2020.
Among other things, the cooling towers were blown up in May 2020.
According to the current legal situation, the interim storage facilities for nuclear waste may be used for a maximum of 40 years from the storage of the first nuclear waste.
There is not yet a repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste in Germany, but the search for a suitable location is currently underway.
In contrast, Switzerland recently presented its location.
It is not far from the German border on the High Rhine.
Germany has ruled out sharing the camp.
