Biblis interim storage facility (BZB) | Waste interim storage facility Biblis 1 (AZB 1) | Waste interim storage facility Biblis 2 (AZB 2)

The Biblis interim storage facility is located to the south 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.

The Biblis interim storage facility will also receive reprocessed waste from outside Germany. The concept agreed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, energy utilities and federal states for the return of vitrified intermediate and high-level radioactive waste from reprocessing in France and the United Kingdom to Germany will ensure that returned casks are fairly distributed to various interim storage facilities throughout Germany. 20 casks from the United Kingdom and 5 from France will be distributed to 4 on-site interim storage facilities: Philippsburg in Baden-Württemberg (five casks containing intermediate-level radioactive waste block canisters), Biblis in Hesse (six casks with high-level radioactive waste block canisters), Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein (seven casks with high-level radioactive waste block canisters) and Isar in Bavaria (seven casks with high-level radioactive waste block canisters).

More information about the return of radioactive waste from reprocessing is available here.

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.