Retrofitting
In the light of more recent findings on potential interference by third parties, operators of all interim storage facilities in Germany are required to take measures to upgrade the security of their facilities. An additional protective wall is currently being constructed directly around the storage area in Ahaus. This structural work will have practically no impact on the outside appearance of the interim storage facility. Temporary measures will be taken to enhance the security of the facility against interference by third parties pending construction of the protective wall. Kerosene drains have also been integrated in the construction of the protective wall for the contingency of a crash of a passenger aircraft onto the TBL-A to ensure that all safety objectives are also securely met for future use.
Background information on retrofitting is available from the Federal Ministry for the Environment at: www.bmu.de (german version only)
Fuel elements from the AVR Jülich prototype reactor
The licence to store the 152 CASTOR type THTR/AVR casks in Jülich expired in 2013. In 2014, the nuclear regulatory authority of North Rhine-Westphalia ordered the clearance of the Jülich interim storage facility. The operator of the storage facility, Jülicher Entsorgungsgesellschaft für Nuklearanlagen mbH (JEN), pursued two options: the construction of a new interim storage facility in Jülich and the storage of the AVR casks in the Ahaus interim storage facility.
In 2016, the Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Management (BfE; now the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, BASE) granted approval for the 152 casks from Jülich to be stored at the Ahaus interim storage facility. In August 2025, BASE also approved the transport of the casks. All the necessary nuclear regulatory requirements for the transfer of the AVR fuel elements to Ahaus are now fulfilled. The first of 152 CASTOR type THTR/AVR casks from Jülich has been transported to the interim storage facility in Ahaus in March 2026. The remaining 151 casks are scheduled to follow in the coming months.
More information can be found at: www.jen-juelich.de/projekte/avr-brennelemente/
Research reactor fuel elements
The TBL-A is envisaged as the storage facility for spent fuel elements originating from research reactors in German universities.
The licensing procedure for the interim storage of spent research reactor fuel elements from the “Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz“ (FRM II) in CASTOR Type MTR 3 casks has therefore been underway since late 2014. The transport of these casks to Ahaus is currently scheduled to begin in 2019. FRM II is a central scientific institution of the Technical University of Munich. The work undertaken at the FRM II includes the manufacture of radiopharmaceutical products and the use of external beam radiation in fast neutron therapy for the treatment of cancerous tumours on the skin or near the surface of the body.
Background information about FRM II can be found at: www.frm2.tum.de
The operator of the BER II research reactor in Berlin, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), informed BGZ in summer 2018 that it wishes to place spent fuel elements from the BER II in interim storage in Ahaus. As BER II will be decommissioned in 2019, the plan is for a total of three casks of fuel elements to be taken to Ahaus. The fuel elements will be transported and stored in CASTOR MTR 3 casks. Storage in Ahaus is subject to authorisation by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BfE). The HZB does not plan to transport fuel elements to Ahaus before 2023.
The HZB has a contractual option for the interim storage of its fuel elements in Ahaus. The corresponding application was submitted in compliance with the Atomic Energy Act in 1995. As it was foreseeable that the HZB would not initially make use of a license issued, the application was provisionally suspended until 2004. BGZ is now honouring its contractual obligations to the HZB by resuming the license procedure with the BfE.
More information, including about the research reactor in Berlin, is available on the HZB website.
Return of reprocessed waste
Application was made in 2006 for the storage of compacted intermediate-level radioactive hulls and structural components of German fuel elements from reprocessing in France. The Federal Republic of Germany is bound under international law to take back all reprocessing waste from German fuel elements. This will entail storing 150 TGC-27 type casks with compacted intermediate-level radioactive hulls and structural components of German fuel elements in the TBL-A.