Return of Reprocessing Waste From France to Germany: Assessment of Radiological Impact for Incident-Free Transport

A transport risk assessment study has been completed on behalf of the French Nuclear Protection and Safety Institute (IPSN), France, the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety (BMU), Germany, and the Directorate-General for Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection, (XI-A-I) of the European Commission (EC) with the objective to provide an overview of the type, quantity, and characteristics of radioactive waste resulting from reprocessing of German spent nuclear fuel at Cogema La Hague Reprocessing Plant and to estimate the order of magnitude of the radiological risks arising from the transport of this radioactive waste by road and rail from France to Germany. The radiological risks entailed in the transport and handling operations of the reprocessing waste materials considered in the study include both the radiation exposure related to the routine transportation (accident-free) and the probabilistic assessment for potential accidental exposure. This paper is related to the assessment of the radiological risk arising from routine transportation, while the accidental exposure is described in a companion paper presented at this meeting (Schwarz et al. 1995).