Decommissioning

In the few months since Germany’s bold decision to switch off seven nuclear reactors, decommissioning plans are slowly moving forward.

While the federal German environment ministry (Bundesumweltsministerium or BMU) has the master plan, it is up to the individual Bundeslaender (states such as Bavaria, Hesse etc) to manage the decommissioning of individual reactors over the coming decade, triggering their own individual discussions with private energy utilities that produce nuclear power.

By Elisabeth Jeffries

No common plan

“There is no common German decommissioning plan,” points out Axel Baecker of the department for international cooperation at EWN, a publicly funded company running Germany’s first multi-reactor decommissioning project launched in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The company has been in charge of dismantling and decommissioning five plants since that time, providing Germany with substantial experience of decommissioning problems.

According to the BMU. six more plants will be switched off by the end of 2021, with the newest offline by 2022. One of the seven nuclear reactors turned off immediately after Fukushima is until spring 2013 to act as standby capacity in case of an unforeseen shortfall in electricity supply. Plans for permanent nuclear waste storage are still to be settled.  Spent fuel and resulting radioactive waste from EWN sites is stored at an interim storage location in Greifswald.  Gorleben in Lower Saxony is another medium-term nuclear waste storage site.

No final store?

Other radioactive material will also remain at Greifswald until it is taken to Konrad, the final store for low and medium level radioactive waste.  “There is no storage for high level radioactive waste,” states Tobias Riedl, a Greenpeace campaigner. 

Lothar Lambertz, external communications manager at RWE, elaborates: “The Gorleben saltdome and the Konrad pit are already technically functioning concepts for final storage There is no research that suggests Gorleben is unsuitable,” he points out.

The federal government is due to draft a legal proposal before the end of 2011.  “The generations that use nuclear power also have to worry about the location for the final storage of nuclear waste.  This includes both a further exploration of the possibilities for Gorleben, which are still open, and a procedure that will determine generally suitable geological features and potential alternative waste disposal options,” it stated earlier this year. 

According to the Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz (BfS – the federal office for protection from radiation), Konrad is a deep, geologically stable repository 800-1300 metres below the city of Salzgitter extending as far as the town of Gifhorn in Lower Saxony. This repository itself lies beneath a 400 metre layer of impervious clay.  The waste will be stored in 11 approved fields in iron ore deposits.  Konrad is due to start operating in 2019 and to reach maximum waste storage capacity by 2040.  

Early days for supply chain

It is still early days for a supply chain to have developed and individual companies are responsible for their own tendering. All indications so far suggest that opportunities for third party suppliers will be limited.  In the case of Greifswald, the company EWN manages the whole process. 

Comments from Lothar Lambertz suggest RWE will adopt a fairly similar approach:  “Across Germany, and also in RWE itself, there is enough experience of decommissioning.  The vast majority of the work will be carried out by experts who have also been involved in constructing and running the plant,” he says, drawing attention to RWE’s experience of decommissioning the pilot nuclear plant Kahl in Bavaria, which operated for 23 years.

This was Germany’s first nuclear reactor and was switched off in 1985. “The site has been completely restored to the greenfield state it was in before the erection, operation and dismantling of the reactor,” says Lambertz.

Plant operators have to make financial provisions for decommissioning over the course of the remaining years of plant life. This is estimated to amount to a total of €29 billion.  According to RWE, the energy suppliers have so far invested €1.4 billion between them.

The government has allowed tax breaks for financial provisions for nuclear decommissioning, giving individual plant operators the opportunity to invest in other areas to earn more money while at the same time keeping them ahead of potential competitors. If a company goes bankrupt, the tax payer will be expected to foot the bill.

Financial means

According to Lambertz, RWE has enough means to pay for this programme.  However, E.On is filing a claim for damages against the government at Germany’s high court, according to reports by Financial Times Deutschland on November 3rd.  It also reported others, such as Vattenfall, considering similar moves. The way ahead is not likely to be easy. 

Prior to Fukushima, the Merkel government put the brakes on a nuclear exit.  But Tobias Riedl of Greenpeace suggests there is no way back this time. “The decision to switch all nuclear power off was taken through a consensus of all parties so another u-turn is improbable, though possible,” he asserts.