Vattenfall has handed over the newly built warehouse for low and medium radioactive waste (LasmA) at the Brunsbüttel NPP site to Germany’s state-owned company for interim storage, BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH. LasmA will replace the transport delivery halls I and II currently operating at the site.
LasmA will store all low and medium radioactive waste from the operation and dismantling of the Brunsbüttel NPP, as well as operating waste from the Krümmel NPP, the storage of which is approved for the transport hall II.
Dr Ingo Neuhaus, Managing Director of the Vattenfall nuclear energy division in Germany said the warehouse “meets the highest requirements for the safety of the storage of such waste”. He added that the safe storage of radioactive substances has top priority. “The massive reinforced concrete construction protects the stored waste or large components from external influences and at the same time represents effective shielding.”
LasmA consists of the warehouse building and the functional building. The warehouse building – 116 metres long, 48 metres wide and 16 metres high – is divided into two halls, each with its own crane system. At the two ends of the warehouse there is a handling area in which the waste containers and large components are accepted. LasmA has approximately 85cm thick reinforced concrete walls and an approximately 95cm thick reinforced concrete ceiling. It rests on 376 bored piles up to 38 metres deep with a total length of around 12,000 metres. Some 6,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel were installed and 38,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete, including 16,000 cubic metres in the piles.
The functional building connects directly to the warehouse. It is 36 metres long, 14 metres wide and 10 metres high. It comprises rooms for the operating personnel, storage and archive rooms and the technical facilities required for the operation of the warehouse, such as the air conditioning system.
The single-unit Brunsbüttel plant was among the eight oldest German reactors taken out of service in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The 771 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR) had been idle since 2007 following a grid-facilitated trip. Vattenfall – which owns a 66.7% stake in the plant with E.ON holding the remaining 33.3% – applied in late 2012 to decommission that plant. Work began in 2019.
Until then, Germany had generated one-quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy with 17 reactors. The other seven reactors closed in 2011 included EnBW’s Phillipsburg unit 1 and Neckarwestheim unit 1; E.ON’s Isar unit 1 and Unterweser; RWE’s Biblis A&B and Vattenfall’s Krümmel. E.ON’s Grafenrheinfeld closed in 2015; RWE’s Grundremmingen B in 2017; EnBW’s Philippsburg unit 2 in 2019; and Vattenfall’s Brokdorf, E.ON’s Grohnde and RWE’s Gundremmingen C in 2021. E.ON’s Isar 2, EnBW’s Neckarwestheim 2 and RWE’s Emsland closed in 2023. Two older reactors – E.ON’s Stade NPP and ENBW’s Obrigheim had already been shut down in 2003 and 2005.
To deal with the resulting decommissioning, in 2017, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building & Nuclear Safety (BMU) and GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH established the BGZ joint venture to enable the government to take over intermediate storage and final disposal of radioactive waste. GNS then reached an agreement with the BMU for the transfer of its share in BGZ making the federal government the sole owner of BGZ.
BGZ describes itself as a privately-organised federal company based in Essen “and we guarantee the safe and reliable operation of the Ahaus and Gorleben interim storage facilities”. On 1 January 2019, the approved, decentralised interim storage facilities at German NPP sites were also transferred BGZ. As well as LasmA, these include facilities at Lingen, Unterweser, Brokdorf, Krümmel, Grohnde, Grafenrheinfeld, Isar, Gundremmingen, Neckarwestheim, Philippsburg and Biblis.
Researched and written by Judith Perera
