Biblis interim storage facility
The Biblis interim storage facility is located to the southwest of Darmstadt on the Hesse side of the Rhine in the Municipality of Biblis. The interim storage facility went into operation on 18 May 2006 with the emplacement of the first cask (CASTOR V/19 type). The licence under the Atomic Energy Act for the storage of nuclear fuels in the Biblis interim storage facility expires 40 years after emplacement of the first cask. BGZ has been responsible for operating the Biblis interim storage facility since 1 January 2019.
The Biblis interim storage facility is located within the plant perimeter fence surrounding the operating site of the Biblis nuclear power plant and consists of a shipment area and cask maintenance station, two storage areas and an access and technical area. This means that CASTOR casks only need to be moved a short distance from the reactor building to the interim storage facility and that no public roads need to be used. The two storage areas are separated by a concrete wall. The storage building is approximately 92 metres long, 38 metres wide and 19.5 metres high. High-level radioactive waste from the operation of blocks A and B of the nuclear power plant is held in dry storage in the Biblis interim storage facility. The storage building has a capacity of 135 spaces.
Six additional CASTOR casks holding vitrified radioactive waste from reprocessing in Great Britain have been stored in the Biblis interim storage facility since January 2021.
Please find here further information on the return of radioactive waste from reprocessing.
The current state of the licensing procedures for high-level radioactive waste interim storage facilities can be found on the website of the federal office for the Safety of nuclear waste management (BASE). Here.
Biblis interim storage facility
(Hesse)
Bei den Münchäckern 60
68647 Biblis
Operator: BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH
Cask spaces: 135 licensed | 108 occupied*
Current occupancy: 102 CASTOR V/19 | 6 CASTOR HAW28M |138 MOSAIK casks
Application: 1999
License: 2003
Commissioning: 2006
Licensed until: 2046
Licensed inventory: Maximum 1,400 t SM** | Maximum 5.3 MW***
* On 30 April 2025
** t SM = Tonnes of heavy metal
*** MW = Total thermal power in megawatts