Repository for radioactive waste Morsleben
Encyclopedia
The repository for radioactive waste Morsleben (Endlager für radioaktive Abfälle Morsleben-ERAM) is a deep geological repository
for radioactive waste
in the rock salt mine
Bartensleben
in Morsleben
, district Börde in the federal state Saxony-Anhalt
.
.
mining shaft "Marie" in 1897. Shaft "Bartensleben" started between 1910–1912 and is of current depth 525 m. The mine levels in shaft "Bartensleben" are interconnected with shaft "Marie" at depths 326 ,426, 466 and 506 m. The main mine structure is between 320 and 630m depth.
They were forced to work in the underground tunnels of more than 400 meters depth on the production of components for the jet aircraft Me 262 and rockets, including V1
and V2.The components included parts for guidance systems. For secrecy the underground shafts "Marie" at Beendorf and "Bartensleben" in Morsleben were named "bulldog" and "polecat".
near Dresden
, East Germany was granted in 1971/72. These deposits were made due to economic considerations ahead of the conversion operations (deployment authorization of 1974) of the salt mine as a disposal site. In the years that followed smaller quantities of radioactive materials were stored until the commissioning approval in 1978/79. On June 20, 1981 the temporary approval for continuous use was published, followed by the final license on April 22, 1986.
A request for a closure permit, under which the evidence of long-term security had to be provided, was not granted. In the late 1980s the preparations started for an additional approval stage for the storage of high level radioactive waste. In the wake of the unification of East and West Germany the approval process was halted.
In the first storage period from 1971 to February 1991, approximately 14432 cubic meters of intermediate- and low level radioactive waste and 6227 sealed objects with a total activity of about 0.29 P Bq
were stored. The waste came mainly from the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant
and Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant
and from the ELBE
of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
research reactor. The rest of the radiation and radioactive waste sources were products from the radionuclides used in research, medicine and industry and consisted of about 40% solid waste, particularly mixed and solidified evaporator concentrates, and almost 60% of liquid evaporator concentrate.
In the context of the German reunification
the responsibility for the repository was transferred to the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS).
In the period 1994 to 1998 approximately 22320 m³ of radioactive waste with a total activity of 0.08 TBq alpha radiation and 91 TBq in beta and gamma radiation was stored in Morsleben. 88 % of the waste came from the entire federal territory and the nuclear powerplants in Rheinsberg and Lubmin
. 3% of the waste came from the national depots, and a further 9% from research institutions and other bodies. Again it was primarily mixed waste, evaporator concentrates, resins, waste under high pressure and sealed sources. The nuclear industry contributed 138 Million
Euro in the period 1994- 1998 for deposit costs.
Altogether, up to the termination of the storage operation in 1998 (including the period before reunification) at least 36753 m³ of low and intermediate level radioactive waste was stored in Morsleben. With an additional 6621 (other sources speak of 6892) sealed sources. The total radiation activity is specified at about 0.38 PBq .
Since the suspension of nuclear waste storage in Morsleben in 1998 the stability of the salt domes deteriorated to a state in which collapse could occur. Since 2003 480.000 m³ of salt-concrete
has been pumped into the pit to temporarily stabilize the upper levels. In addition another 4.000.000 m³ of saltconrete will be used to temporarily stabilize the lower levels.
The governmental costs for the remedial measures and closure of the mine is estimated at 2.2 billion euro
. The work is carried out by the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe
(DBE). which is 75% owned by the Gesellschaft für Nuklear Service
(GNS) with shared owners E.ON
(48%), RWE
(28%), EnBW
(18.5%) and Vattenfall
(5.5%).
Deep geological repository
A deep geological repository is a nuclear waste repository excavated deep within a stable geologic environment...
for radioactive waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
in the rock salt mine
Salt mine
A salt mine is a mining operation involved in the extraction of rock salt or halite from evaporite deposits.-Occurrence:Areas known for their salt mines include Kilroot near Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland ; Khewra and Warcha in Pakistan; Tuzla in Bosnia; Wieliczka and Bochnia in Poland A salt mine...
Bartensleben
Bartensleben
Bartensleben is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Erxleben. It is mostly known because of the former Repository for radioactive waste Morsleben nearby. The disposal of waste into the facility was...
in Morsleben
Morsleben
Morsleben is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Ingersleben. It is mostly known because of the former Repository for radioactive waste Morsleben nearby. The disposal of waste into the facility was...
, district Börde in the federal state Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
.
History
After closure of the salt mining activities Bartensleben was designated as a repository for radioactive waste by the former government of East Germany. Today, the shaft is operated by the "Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe mbH (DBE)" under supervision of the Bundesamt für StrahlenschutzBundesamt für Strahlenschutz
The Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz is the German Federal Authority for Radiation Protection. The BfS was established in November 1989, the headquarter is located in Salzgitter, with branch offices in Berlin, Bonn, Freiburg, Gorleben, Oberschleißheim and Rendsburg. It has 708 employees and an annual...
.
Potash
The salt mining industry in this region is over a century-old, and started with the first potashPotash
Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...
mining shaft "Marie" in 1897. Shaft "Bartensleben" started between 1910–1912 and is of current depth 525 m. The mine levels in shaft "Bartensleben" are interconnected with shaft "Marie" at depths 326 ,426, 466 and 506 m. The main mine structure is between 320 and 630m depth.
Weapon production and forced labor
During the Third Reich, from February 1944 until April 1945, forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners from Ravensbrueck, and Buchenwald were employed. From August 1944, 2,500 German, Soviet, Polish, Hungarian and French female concentration camp prisoners, also from the Neuengamme camp, were moved to the Beendorf camp. Initially this was a sub camp of Buchenwald and latterly of the Neuengamme camp. They worked in the salt mine.They were forced to work in the underground tunnels of more than 400 meters depth on the production of components for the jet aircraft Me 262 and rockets, including V1
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
and V2.The components included parts for guidance systems. For secrecy the underground shafts "Marie" at Beendorf and "Bartensleben" in Morsleben were named "bulldog" and "polecat".
Site selection
In 1965 the Staatliche Zentrale für Strahlenschutz (SZS) of East Germany (later: Staatliches Amt für Atomsicherheit und Strahlenschutz (SAAS)) started with a search for a central storage location for all types of radioactive waste. During the selection process, ten sites were considered. Three of them came up for the final selection, which included the shafts "Bartensleben" (Morsleben) and "Marie" (Beendorf). In 1965 the decision was made to select Morsleben as the site for the "Zentralen Endlager Grube Bartensleben" (ZEGB). Important criteria were salt as a disposal medium, the size and availability of underground caverns and the early viability of the mine. The site permits were issued in 1972-73.Inventory
The first partial authorization for retrievable storage of 500 cubic meters of radioactive waste from the crowded central storage depot in LohmenLohmen
Lohmen is a municipality in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany.- History :Lohmen was first officially recognized as a village in 1292. The village name comes from the Slovak term lom or "fissure". There were quarries in the area as early as 1200, and were the first...
near Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, East Germany was granted in 1971/72. These deposits were made due to economic considerations ahead of the conversion operations (deployment authorization of 1974) of the salt mine as a disposal site. In the years that followed smaller quantities of radioactive materials were stored until the commissioning approval in 1978/79. On June 20, 1981 the temporary approval for continuous use was published, followed by the final license on April 22, 1986.
A request for a closure permit, under which the evidence of long-term security had to be provided, was not granted. In the late 1980s the preparations started for an additional approval stage for the storage of high level radioactive waste. In the wake of the unification of East and West Germany the approval process was halted.
In the first storage period from 1971 to February 1991, approximately 14432 cubic meters of intermediate- and low level radioactive waste and 6227 sealed objects with a total activity of about 0.29 P Bq
Becquerel
The becquerel is the SI-derived unit of radioactivity. One Bq is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. The Bq unit is therefore equivalent to an inverse second, s−1...
were stored. The waste came mainly from the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant
Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant
The Nuclear power station Greifswald , also known as nuclear power station Lubmin, was the largest nuclear power station in East Germany before closure shortly after the German reunification. The plants were of the VVER-440/V-230 type, which was the first generation of Soviet Union designed plants...
and Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant
Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant
Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Station was the second nuclear reactor in East Germany after the Rossendorf Research Reactor, and the first nuclear power reactor in East Germany. It was built close to the city of Rheinsberg on the Stechlinsee...
and from the ELBE
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf is a German research laboratory in Dresden and member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres...
research reactor. The rest of the radiation and radioactive waste sources were products from the radionuclides used in research, medicine and industry and consisted of about 40% solid waste, particularly mixed and solidified evaporator concentrates, and almost 60% of liquid evaporator concentrate.
In the context of the German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
the responsibility for the repository was transferred to the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS).
In the period 1994 to 1998 approximately 22320 m³ of radioactive waste with a total activity of 0.08 TBq alpha radiation and 91 TBq in beta and gamma radiation was stored in Morsleben. 88 % of the waste came from the entire federal territory and the nuclear powerplants in Rheinsberg and Lubmin
Lubmin
Lubmin is a coastal resort in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Lubmin is situated near Greifswald and on the Bay of Greifswald.Apart from tourism, Lubmin is a major transport and industry hub and investment location in the German energy sector...
. 3% of the waste came from the national depots, and a further 9% from research institutions and other bodies. Again it was primarily mixed waste, evaporator concentrates, resins, waste under high pressure and sealed sources. The nuclear industry contributed 138 Million
Million
One million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione , from mille, "thousand", plus the augmentative suffix -one.In scientific notation, it is written as or just 106...
Euro in the period 1994- 1998 for deposit costs.
Altogether, up to the termination of the storage operation in 1998 (including the period before reunification) at least 36753 m³ of low and intermediate level radioactive waste was stored in Morsleben. With an additional 6621 (other sources speak of 6892) sealed sources. The total radiation activity is specified at about 0.38 PBq .
Delayed closure
The request on October 13, 1992 from Saxony-Anhalt's Ministry of Environment to initiate a planning process under § 9 b AtG for the continued operation of the site from June 30, 2000 onwards was limited on May 9, 1997 to a decommissioning of the repository Morsleben. The Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz notified the planning authority on April 17, 2001 that it irrevocably waived approval of the regulations that permit the continued use of the site and acceptance of other radioactive waste and their storage in the repository Morsleben. The planning procedure for the closure will now be accelerated. Whether it succeeds to stabilize the mine and maintain long-term security is still unclear.Since the suspension of nuclear waste storage in Morsleben in 1998 the stability of the salt domes deteriorated to a state in which collapse could occur. Since 2003 480.000 m³ of salt-concrete
Salt-concrete
Salt-concrete is a construction material that is used to reduce the water inflow in mining shafts in salt mines. It is composed of 16% cement, 39% halite, 16% limestone powder, 14% water and 15% sand.-History:...
has been pumped into the pit to temporarily stabilize the upper levels. In addition another 4.000.000 m³ of saltconrete will be used to temporarily stabilize the lower levels.
The governmental costs for the remedial measures and closure of the mine is estimated at 2.2 billion euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
. The work is carried out by the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe
Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe
The Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe mbH is founded in 1979 and based in Peine...
(DBE). which is 75% owned by the Gesellschaft für Nuklear Service
Gesellschaft für Nuklear Service
The Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH carries out services in the field of radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and operates through several subsidiaries interim storage depots for spent fuel and radioactive waste as in Gorleben and Ahaus...
(GNS) with shared owners E.ON
E.ON
E.ON AG, marketed with an interpunct as E•ON, is the holding company of the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity....
(48%), RWE
RWE
RWE AG , is a German electric power and natural gas public utility company based in Essen. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company contributes electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe...
(28%), EnBW
EnBW
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly traded electric utilities company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.-History:...
(18.5%) and Vattenfall
Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a Swedish power company. The name Vattenfall is Swedish for waterfall, and is an abbreviation of its original name, Royal Waterfall Board...
(5.5%).
See also
- Nuclear decommissioningNuclear decommissioningNuclear decommissioning is the dismantling of a nuclear power plant and decontamination of the site to a state no longer requiring protection from radiation for the general public...
- Schacht Asse IISchacht Asse IIThe Asse II pit is a former salt mine used as a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in the mountain range of Asse in district Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony, Germany.-History:...
- Salt dome GorlebenSalt dome GorlebenThe salt dome Gorleben is a proposed deep geological repository in a salt dome in Gorleben in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony for low-, medium- and high-level radioactive waste.-Site selection:...
- Schacht KonradSchacht KonradThe pit Konrad is a former iron ore mine proposed as a deep geological repository for medium- and low level radioactive waste in the city Salzgitter in the Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig...