INVESTIGATIONS ON THE RECONDITIONING OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND WASTE PRODUCTS FOR LONG-TERM INTERIM STORAGE IN GERMAN FEDERAL STATES (LÄNDER)

As required by federal law, the German Lander run collection sites for radioactive waste resulting from activities in industry, research and medicine. Because most of the main waste producers run their own licensed intermediate storage sites, the remaining amount of radioactive waste is relatively small. Due to the origin of the waste from minor producers varying amounts are collected. Some Lander have very small amounts of radioactive waste whereas others have a significant amount of low-level radioactive waste. The total amounts are still small in comparison to the major waste producers. There is a lack of an operating final repository in Germany. The former repository sites of Asse Research Mine (test site) and Morsleben (former final repository of GDR) are closed. It is now anticipated that no final repository for low-, intermediate- and high-level waste will be available in Germany before 2030. The federal government of Germany has the responsibility to provide a final repository site. The Lander have taken over the responsibility for disposing of the collected waste in a federal final repository subject to the charging of a fee for acceptance of the waste. Therefore, the remaining radioactive waste and waste products have to be conditioned for interim storage for 30 years or more. Some radioactive waste has already been stored for 15 years or more under a range of conditions. The paper will present the present status, problems, present (re-)conditioning and some reflections for achieving safe interim storage of low-level radioactive waste at the federal collection sites in Germany.