11th Return of Nuclear Vitrified Waste to Germany

Press release

BACK END / TRANSPORT

November 05, 2010

The transport by train of 11 canisters of vitrified nuclear waste, packaged at La Hague facility, is being set up on Friday, November 5^th from the TN International rail terminal in Valognes (France) to the storage site in Gorleben (Germany).

This is the eleventh return of vitrified waste to Germany. It is carried out in compliance with commercial contacts concluded between the German power companies and AREVA, existing intergovernmental agreements signed between France and Germany on used fuel treatment from German plants in France, and French legislation on the return of waste to its country of origin.

The 11 casks contain 308 canisters for a total weight of 154 metric tons.

• They correspond to the ultimate waste of 513 metric tons of initial uranium that was used to generate electricity for 24.7 million Germans for one year with no carbon dioxide emissions.
• This 11^th transport brings the total number of vitrified waste canisters shipped to Germany since 1996 to 2,716, i.e. 90% of all the canisters to be shipped to that country.