Philippsburg interim storage facility

The Philippsburg interim storage facility is located between Philippsburg and Oberhausen-Rheinhausen in the Municipality of Philippsburg in Baden-Württemberg and went into operation with the emplacement of the first cask on 19 March 2007. The licence under the Atomic Energy Act for the storage of nuclear fuels in the Philippsburg interim storage facility expires 40 years after emplacement of the first cask. BGZ has been responsible for operating the Philippsburg interim storage facility since 1 January 2019.

The interim storage facility is located on the site of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant and is enclosed by a fence. This means that 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 storage building consists of one shipment and two storage areas. The shipment area is located to the north west of the storage building. Storage area 1 has a surface area of 1,150 m² for 72 spaces; storage area 2 covers 1,250 m² for 80 spaces. Casks are stored in the storage areas in 9 or 10 double rows, each with 8 spaces, totalling 152 spaces.

Return from reprocessing

The Philippsburg interim storage facility will receive reprocessed waste from outside Germany. The concept for the return of vitrified intermediate level 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 from France), 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.

Current licensing procedure

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management has checked whether an EIA assessment is required in the current licensing procedure for the storage of nuclear fuels packaged in quivers and loaded in CASTOR^® V/19 casks.

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not required. The findings and reasoning are available here.