Castor test drive through NRW
On Wednesday night, an empty Castor container will be used to rehearse the process of possible nuclear waste transports across North Rhine-Westphalia. The heavy transport is to travel from Jülich (Düren district) to the Ahaus interim storage facility in Münsterland, a good 170 kilometers away, according to the Jülich Nuclear Waste Management Company (JEN). JEN had announced a trial transport from November 6; according to information from the German Press Agency, it will leave in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Around 300,000 fuel element spheres from a former test reactor are stored in 152 Castor casks in Jülich. No final decision has yet been made as to their whereabouts. According to a report to the Bundestag Budget Committee in September 2022, the Federal Ministries of Research, Environment and Finance prefer transportation to Ahaus. The test run on Wednesday night is intended to test the complex loading in Jülich, transportation and unloading in Ahaus. The Castor container itself only weighs around 25 tons, but the entire transporter weighs around 130 tons in total due to the safety equipment. As a heavy transporter, it is only allowed on the road at night.
This internal test run is being used to rehearse for another trial transport of an empty Castor container in November. The supervisory authority and experts will then be present during this official "cold handling".
Remaining in Jülich is the other option; the CDU and Greens have spoken out in favor of this in their 2022 coalition agreement. This would require a newly built interim storage facility - the license for the current interim storage facility, where the nuclear waste is currently stored, expired in the middle of the last decade. Jülich's mayor, Axel Fuchs, is also in favor of the "Jülich option": "The population is unconcerned about the issue and there is expertise in the community. There is also resistance to the possible transports in Ahaus. Several initiatives pointed out that there are no repair facilities for defective Castors there. Before final storage, which is still unclear, the 300,000 or so fuel element spheres would have to be repackaged, which would not be possible in Ahaus. In addition, there is an "enormous additional risk" due to transportation via freeways in NRW.
Nuclear power plays a significant role in this situation, as the empty Castor container is used for rehearsing potential nuclear waste transports, containing spent fuel element spheres from a former test reactor. The preferred transportation destination, according to the Federal Ministries of Research, Environment, and Finance, is Ahaus, where nuclear waste is planned to be temporarily stored due to its superior facilities.
Source: www.dpa.com
