ON-SITE TRANSFER AND STORAGE OF SPENT FUEL IN CASTOR? CASKS IN GERMANY

On-site transfer and storage of spent fuel in CASTOR? casks will become more and more important in Germany because storage facilities will go into operation at each NPP site by 2005. Up to now, there have been on-site transfers of spent fuel casks to an external wet storage facility, transfers between pools to optimize pool storage capacities at sites with 2 reactors, and transfers to dry storage facilities at some NPP sites. Some special safety features, that differ from regulations for transport on public roads have to be considered in these cases, e. g. drop accidents without shock absorbers, radiolyses during wet transfer, tightness control during storage. No relevant safety problems appeared during the transfers and the storage carried out up to now.