Orano completes repatriation of reprocessing waste to Germany

Orano completed the 13th and final rail shipment of vitrified high-level nuclear waste from France to Germany. The company announced that the four casks of vitrified HLW arrived at Germany's intermediate storage facility at Philippsburg in the early evening of November 20.

According to Orano, the waste shipment settles all commitments relating to the contracts for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel signed between Orano and German utilities PreussenElektra, RWE, EnBW, and Vattenfall since 1977. It also fulfills a 2021 agreement between France and Germany for the repatriation of HLW resulting from the processing of German spent fuel before the end of 2024.

The agreement: The 2021 agreement had two components, Orano said. One concerned the transfer of ownership of 24 reconditioned French heavy casks to German utilities. As requested by the German companies, the empty casks were shipped to a metal recycling plant in the United States.

The other component concerned the return of high-activity vitrified residues to the Philippsburg storage site from Orano's reprocessing plant at La Hague. This waste was transported in four casks, which had been approved by the French Nuclear Safety Authority and met international safety standards.

The agreement applied the principle of equivalence in mass and radioactivity in the return the reprocessed waste, and most of the radioactivity had previously been returned to Germany during shipments that occurred between 1996 and 2011, according to Orano.

From 1977 to 1991, Orano processed 5,310 metric tons of spent fuel under contracts with the four German utility companies. Germany has prohibited the shipment of SNF abroad for reprocessing since 2005.