Empty Castor drives through NRW: test for possible transports
An empty Castor container was sent on a test run across North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday evening to test the process of possible nuclear waste transports. The heavy transport left the premises of the Jülich Nuclear Waste Management Company (JEN) as planned at around 10 p.m., as its spokesperson told the German Press Agency when asked. The transport, which weighs a total of 130 tons, is due to arrive at the Ahaus interim storage facility in Münsterland, a good 170 kilometers away, on Wednesday night. As a heavy transport, it is only allowed on the road at night.
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 on their whereabouts. One option is to transport them to Ahaus. This option is preferred by the Federal Ministries of Research, Environment and Finance. The test run is intended to test the complex loading in Jülich and the transportation and unloading in Ahaus. A second test transport is to follow in November. The supervisory authority and experts will then be present during this official "cold handling".
There is also opposition to the possible transports. Several initiatives have pointed out disadvantages: There are no repair facilities for defective Castors in Ahaus. Before final storage, the 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.
The second option is to leave the radioactive waste in Jülich. This is favored by the CDU and Greens in their 2022 coalition agreement. This would require a new 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 in favor of keeping it in the city: the population is unconcerned about the issue and there is expertise in the municipality.
The first nuclear power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia to consider for the storage of the test reactor's spent fuel is the Ahaus interim storage facility. The transportation of nuclear waste in Castor containers, such as the one undergoing a test run, raises concerns about repair facilities, repackaging capabilities, and additional risks associated with freeway travel.
Source: www.dpa.com
