RESUMING THE SPENT FUEL TRANSPORTS BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY

Further to the spent fuel transports suspension in May 1998, the German Authorities, the German Utilities, and COGEMA have defined the conditions for the resumption of the transports to COGEMA La Hague plant. It was the role of COGEMA, Transnucléaire and ACTA Technologien to implement the technical means and administrative procedures regarding control of radiological non-contamination that should apply for spent fuel transports from for spent fuel transports from Germany to La Hague. The flasks types which are selected for these transports are: TN 12/2, TN 13/1, TN 13/2 and TN 17/2. Once the independent expertise of GRS confirmed that their design was not the source of contamination problems, the flasks licenses have been renewed and revalidated in Germany, and the first transport authorizations were granted. The resumption of transports takes place in three phases: Phase I: on-site non-active tests with empty flasks to check the procedures implementation Phase II: performance of 3 to 5 transports per flask and site, with optimization of the procedures at the end of this phase Phase III: routine phase under optimized procedures. The first transport of 5 spent fuel flasks took place in April 2001. 21 spent fuel flasks have been received at COGEMA La Hague plant, since this resumption of the transport