Karlsruhe glazing facility

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The Karlsruhe vitrification facility (abbreviation VEK ) is a German glazing facility near Karlsruhe . The facility served to solidify the operational waste from the Karlsruhe reprocessing plant that was suitable for final disposal . After this work has been completed, the facility is now out of operation and ready for dismantling.

History and operation

The Karlsruhe reprocessing plant (WAK) was in operation from 1971 to 1990. This produced around 60 m³ of highly radioactive liquid waste (HAWC, high active waste concentrate ) in the form of a self- heating nitric acid solution concentrate with around 8 t of solids, including 504 kg of uranium and 16.5 kg of plutonium . In preparation for the interim or later disposal, it was planned to integrate the HAWC into a glass matrix ( HAW glazing ). Due to the associated immobilization of the radioactivity of 770 P Bq , the risk potential should be greatly reduced and a criticality accident excluded.

For this purpose, the Karlsruhe Vitrification Facility (VEK) was built on the WAK site from 1999 to 2005. The most important main process components have already been reproduced and operated on a 1: 1 scale in the so-called prototype test facility (PVA). A round, liquid-fed ceramic melting furnace was used for the vitrification process. The melting furnace was operated at 1150 to 1200 ° C., had a glass bath volume of approx. 150 l, a glass bath surface area of ​​0.4 m² and was designed for a glass production rate of approx. 7 kg / h.

On August 26, 2009, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, as the supervisory authority, issued the operating license. On September 16, 2009, the highly radioactive waste solution (HAWC) was fed into the furnace of the VEK vitrification plant, and routine operation began. This was preceded by the so-called “nuclear test operation”, in which 50 liters of waste solution mixed with approx. 1800 liters of non-radioactive simulate were fed into the melting furnace. A total of three molds were filled with this diluted radioactive glass melt. No interferences occurred.

A total of 140 glass canisters with waste glass were produced for conditioning the HAWC, which originated from the WAK's operating time, in a way that is suitable for disposal. According to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, the glazing process was completed in November 2010.

After welding, the molds were taken to a VEK buffer storage facility and from there they were loaded into transport and storage containers of the CASTOR HAW 20/28 CG type . The glass canisters were brought to the interim storage facility north near Greifswald on February 17, 2011 .

The plant is then to be decommissioned and dismantled by 2023 at the latest Template: future / in 3 years. The costs for the vitrification facility and subsequent interim storage of the glass canisters are estimated at around € 350 million. The total costs for the dismantling of the facilities, glazing and storage were estimated at € 2.6 billion in 2009. The energy industry bears a share of approx. € 0.5 billion of this, as it “bought itself out” of responsibility in an early phase of the project and its share of the costs was capped.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Koelzer, Winfried: Lexicon for nuclear energy . Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe 2008, ISBN 3-923704-32-1 , p. 172 ( PDF; 5.8 MB ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). Retrieved November 14, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / iwrwww1.fzk.de
  2. ^ Karlsruhe glazing facility (VEK) . ( baden-wuerttemberg.de [accessed on May 24, 2018]).
  3. ↑ presseportal.de: Police press: Joint press office VEK-Transport 2011 - VEK-Transport: Final press release on the police operation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.presseportal.de   , February 17, 2011, accessed August 29, 2011

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 36.4 ″  N , 8 ° 26 ′ 3.8 ″  E