Isar interim storage facility
The Isar interim storage facility is located in the Municipality of Niederaibach near Landshut in southern Germany. The interim storage facility went into operation with the emplacement of the first CASTOR V/19 and V/52 type casks on 12 March 2007. The licence under the Atomic Energy Act for the storage of nuclear fuels in the Isar interim storage facility expires 40 years after emplacement of the first cask. BGZ has been responsible for operating the Isar interim storage facility since 1 January 2019.
The Isar interim storage facility is integrated in the nuclear power plant site by an outer enclosure. The entire site is protected by a security perimeter fence. 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. A municipal boundary runs through the site and most of the nuclear power plant site belongs to the Municipality of Essenbach. The site of the Isar interim storage facility, however, belongs to the Municipality of Niederaichbach in the District of Landshut, Lower Bavaria Regional Administrative District. The City of Landshut is about 13 km to the south west.
The storage building has a capacity of 152 spaces. The storage building is approximately 92 metres long, 38 metres wide and 18 metres high and consists of two storage areas, one shipment area and an operating area. Storage area 1 covers an area of approximately 1,230 m², storage area 2 approximately 1,330 m².
The Isar interim storage facility will 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.
Isar interim storage facility
(Bavaria)
Dammstraße 32
84051 Essenbach
Operator: BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH
Cask spaces: 152 licensed | 88 occupied*
Current occupancy: 26 CASTOR V/19 | 43 CASTOR V/52 | 19 TN 24 E
Application: 2000
License: 2003
Commissioning: 2007
Licensed until: 2047
Licensed inventory: Maximum 1.500 t SM** | Maximum 6 MW***
* On 30 June 2024
** t SM = Tonnes of heavy metal
*** MW = Total thermal power in megawatts
