Twelfth shipment of vitrified nuclear wastefrom France to Germany

Press release

BACK END / TRANSPORT

November 23, 2011

Today, eleven casks of vitrified nuclear waste will be shipped from the railway terminal in Valognes (France) to the Gorleben storage facility (Germany).

According to the commercial contracts signed between the German power companies and AREVA, and to the intergovernmental agreements concluded between France and Germany, part of the German nuclear used fuel had been sent to France for recycling. Return to Germany of the vitrified nuclear waste resulting from reprocessing is stipulated in these intergovernmental agreements as well as in the French law of June 28, 2006.

The casks used for transport fully comply with the very strict regulatory criteria defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Nuclear material transportation meets national and international standards guaranteeing a high level of safety. 

The maximum value of dose rate measured for this shipment is of 0.07 mSv / hour at 2 meters of the rail cars (lower than the radiation protection level of 0.1 mSv / hour). As comparison, someone staying for around 14 hours permanently at 2 meters of a rail car would reach the dose rate of pelvis X-ray that is 1 mSv.