DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT AND STORAGE CASKS FOR VITRIFIED HIGH LEVEL WASTES: CASTOR-GSF, ASSE TB 1 AND CASTOR HAW-21

The highly active liquid wastes (HAW) resulting from reprocessing are vitrified within steel canisters to allow safe handling, transport and fmal disposal. In order to demonstrate the safe disposal of such wastes in a representative geological formation, the Federal German Ministry of Research and Technology has initiated a programme, which is managed by the GSF. In this programme, vitrified HAW will be transported from Hanford, USA, in six Castor-GSF casks to the Asse salt mine. There the HAW canisters, 30 in total, are transferred into the Asse TB 1 cask, a GSF /GANUK design, which constitutes a special development to meet the very restrictive boundary conditions resulting from transportation and handling within the mine. The vitrified HAW which is returned to the Federal Republic of Germany after fuel reprocessing in France and the United Kingdom has to be stored above ground before final disposal. For this reason and due to the fact that final disposal facilities are not yet available, the Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Wiederaufarbeitung von Kernbrermstoffen mbH and the Gesellschaft fiir Nuklear-Service mbH have developed the high capacity transport and storage cask Castor HAW 2I, which will be licensed for transport and for interim storage. A prototype has been built and thermally tested at full scale.