Richard (Czech Republic)
 
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Richard repository near Litoměřice in the Czech Republic
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Richard is a nuclear repository for low and medium level radioactive waste from research, industry and medicine in a former lime mine of the same name in the Bohemian Central Uplands in the Czech Republic .
location
The repository is located about 2.5 kilometers northwest of the city center of Litoměřice in the ridge north of the Radobýl mountain , on the left side of the road to Kamýk . It is around 70 meters below the surface and above the water table .
history
Mining and underground relocation
The mining of limestone under the hill Bídnice began in the first half of the 19th century . The limestone in this area was quarried at a depth of 70 to 80 meters below the surface in a layer approximately five meters thick . The conditions were ideal for lime mining, which led to the creation of three separate lime works in the area.
After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Litoměřice was incorporated into the German Reich as Leitmeritz and the mine was operated by Leitmeritzer Kalk- und Ziegelwerke AG (founded in 1870 as Leitmeritzer AG for lime and brick distilleries ). During the Second World War , the mine was expanded from 1944 under the National Socialist code name Richard for the underground relocation of German armaments production plants, mainly by prisoners from the Leitmeritz satellite camp set up in the immediate vicinity (see there also the history of the underground relocation ).
After the end of the Second World War, the underground complex was in various stages of expansion, from passages of the original mining activity to fully expanded production halls. After all the equipment had been removed by the Red Army by the end of 1945 , the Čížkovice cement and lime company put the mine into operation for the renewed quarrying of limestone. Numerous other tunnels were created in the Richard I complex over the next 15 years . Eventually the underground mining of limestone became unprofitable and the mining stopped.
Repository
In 1959 one of the first official proposals was made regarding the use of the Richard II complex , a tunnel in the former lime mine and object of the National Socialist underground relocation, as a repository for radioactive waste. The repository went into operation in 1964. In January 2000 the newly established authority for radioactive repositories of the Czech Republic (SÚRAO) took over the repository into state care. It should continue to operate until 2070.
Storage inventory
Radioactive waste from medicine, industry and research as so-called institutional waste on the one hand and operational waste from nuclear power plants on the other hand are disposed of separately in the Czech Republic. Two repositories are still in operation for institutional waste: Richard for the final storage of waste with artificially generated radionuclides and Bratrství Jáchymov for waste with natural radionuclides, i.e. H. Nuclides from the uranium and thorium decay series.
The Richard repository has a storage capacity of 10,250 m 3 and, as of 2017, was around 70% occupied. A total of 19,000 m 3 are used in the Richard II gallery .
The waste to be stored is packed in barrels. An average of 300 containers are brought to the Richard camp every year.
Web links
- Richard repository (Richard deposit) on the website of the Czech authority SÚRAO (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Our Activities: Europe - Czech Republic . ( Memento from October 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Website of the German Society for the Construction and Operation of Repositories for Waste Materials mbH (DBE), accessed on March 11, 2017.
- ↑ a b c History of the Richard repository . SÚRAO website, accessed on March 11, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Czech Radioactive Waste Authority starts work . Nuclear Forum Switzerland, January 5, 2000, accessed on March 11, 2017.
- ^ Richard repository . SÚRAO website, accessed on March 11, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Gorleben in Czech . In: Prager Zeitung , October 15, 2014, accessed on March 11, 2017.
Coordinates: 50 ° 32 '37.2 " N , 14 ° 6' 14.9" E