Shipments of unirradiated MOX-fuel-elements to Nuclear Power Plants in Germany with special security truck service – an overview to the last 20 years

Since 1979/1980 contracts between the operators of the nuclear power plants and the reprocessing plant in La Hague, France, and Sellafield, UK, were in force. These contracts being granted by changing of notes between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of France (dated: 25. April 1979) and the United Kingdom (dated: 18. July 1980). Nearly 5 400 tons of heavy metal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants in Germany was delivered since 1973 until mid 2005 to the reprocessing facility in France; nearly 850 tons of heavy metal of spent fuel to British Nuclear Fuels facilities in the United Kingdom an roughly 200 tons of spent fuel to the former reprocessing facility in Karlsruhe, Germany. Up to the reprocessing contracts between COGEMA and BNFL and German Nuclear Power Utilities a total amount of 38 000 kg of plutonium (Pu_fiss) is expected from these facilities. This paper will describe in detail the experience of shipments of unirradiated MOX-fuel-elements with a special security truck service within Germany to the existing Nuclear Power Plants and will give and outlook to future procedures. The first shipments with plutonium from France to Germany started in the early 1980ies. The destination in Germany was the MOX-fabrication plant in Hanau. Up to problems with the licensing procedure in Germany the MOX-facility in Hanau was set out of order in 1991. Up to now the fabrication of fresh MOX-fuel was transferred to Belgian, France and the United Kingdom. The German Government has decided, in accordance with the power utilities, to phase out nuclear power by limiting the standard lifetime of the nuclear power plants to 32 years from the date of their commissioning. The phasing out was fixed 2002 in the \"Act for the Regulated Termination of the Commercial Use of Nuclear Power\". In this law, a remaining operation time is fixed for each nuclear power plant and during this time period the use of fresh MOX-fuel must be finished. If the routine shipments of unirradiated MOX-fuel-elements will be continued, the last shipment from France will arrive at a Nuclear Power Plant in Germany not later than 2011 and from the United Kingdom not later than 2013.