The German Cask Concept for Interim and Final Storage of Spent Fuel: The Current Status of Development and Testing

For the direct disposal of spent-fuel elements, development work has been done since 1979 based on a governmental resolution. In the period 1981 - 1984 the R&D program \"Alternative Disposal Technologies,\" sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT), was established to study the technical feasibility and safety, as well as to demonstrate that direct disposal can be an alternative to reprocessing. From 1985, the German nuclear industry continued to develop a final disposal cask and planned a pilot conditioning plant (PKA) for spent fuel. As a result of this work, two containers have been developed: the final disposal cask POLLUX (for final storage in drifts), the final disposal canister (for final storage in bore holes). These containers and the status of their development are described in more detail in this report.