TL: STOP THE CASTOR TRANSPORT TO THE AHAUS INTERIM NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE SITE - BACKGROUND SO: GREENPEACE GERMANY (GP) DT: MARCH 1998 In the week of the 23rd to the 27th March 1998 the biggest nuclear train in German history is due to move from two nuclear power plants in the south of Germany to the interim spent fuel storage site in Ahaus near Mnster (North Rhine-Westphalia). This transport is to be made up of a total of six Castor containers. Three containers are to come from the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant in Baden-Wrttemberg and three from the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant in Bavaria. Altogether approximately 60 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear waste are being transported. The spent fuel rods contain about 600 kilograms of extremely dangerous plutonium, which is used to make bombs. The biggest German nuclear train of all time will be transporting six times as much radioactivity as that released during the Chernobyl reactor disaster in 1986. In a densely populated country such as Germany, the transport has to pass through conurbation areas such as Rhine-Main and the Ruhr Valley. THE LONG-TERM INTERIM STORAGE SITE IN AHAUS The Ahaus interim storage site is designed as a long-term interim storage facility for radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. In Ahaus there are 420 spaces reserved for Castor containers, which are to stay in the store for between 30 to 40 years. Neither the site in Ahaus nor the interim storage site in Gorleben, Lower Saxony, offer any insulating effect towards the environment. Any radioactivity escaping through leaks in the Castor containers would enter the environment unhindered. This is why critics describe Ahaus and Gorleben as "gymnasiums" or "potato barns". In Ahaus it is not possible to repair any leaks which may occur in the Castor containers over time. The "hot cell" required for this is not available. Faulty containers would have to be transported right across Germany to Gorleben to be repaired in a special plant there, which, however, is not yet operative. Any such transports of leaking Castor containers which may become necessary involve additional risks. For this reason, the provisional storage of nuclear waste in Ahaus is completely irresponsible. Interim storage does not solve the problem of nuclear waste. The transport of this waste, which will continue to be radioactive for thousands of years, to final disposal sites will have to be made at some point anyway. Ahaus is already used as a storage site for radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. After the shutdown of the THTR (Thorium High-Temperature Reactor) in Hamm-Uentrop (North Rhine- Westphalia) in 1989, a total of 305 THTR Castor containers were stored in Ahaus. However, altogether these 305 containers only contain as much radioactivity as there is in just one of the Castor containers now due to be stored in Ahaus. Storage of the fuel rods from the Hamm-Uentrop reactor ruin was generally accepted by the ecology movement as the prerequisite to demolishing the THTR reactor, and thus as a necessary evil. THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND TO THE CASTOR TRANSPORT TO AHAUS Politically the transport to Ahaus was negotiated at the highest level in spring 1997. After the last Castor transport to the Gorleben site, which, due to widespread popular resistance resulted in the biggest and most expensive police operation in German history (cost: 111 million DM), the lack of any overall concept by German power plant operators and politicians on the question of disposal became obvious. The present prime minister of Lower Saxony and now designated SPD chancellor candidate, Gerhard Schr”der (SPD), managed, together with the responsible Federal Minister of the Environment, Angela Merkel (CDU), to put a stop to these problematic Castor transports to his state (Gorleben is situated near Hanover) for 1998, the general election year. For the imminent transport to the Ahaus store in North Rhine-Westphalia there is a party-political consensus between leading politicians in the CDU and the SPD. THERE IS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE CASTOR FLASKS No safety tests, either on mechanical or thermal stresses, have been conducted in Germany on the flask types now being used, the CASTOR V/19 and V/52. After checking the safety documentation provided for the Castor flasks solely on the basis of computer simulations, their failure in the event of a serious accident cannot be ruled out. Every car on the road has to pass crash tests and "Elk tests", yet the nuclear industry does not conduct practical safety tests due to the costs involved. The evidence of safety for the V/19 and V/52 Castor flasks is insufficient. The V/52 used in this transport is being employed for the first time. In the USA it is not allowed to use either type for transport purposes. The consequences of a serious accident involving the release of radioactivity would be catastrophic. Several expertises on accidents involving nuclear transports have revealed that if a Castor flask is damaged and just one ten-thousandth of the radioactivity in one of these containers escapes, all the inhabitants within a radius of up to six kilometres would have to be relocated and the soils decontaminated. At a distance of 10 kilometres from the site of the accident radiation would still exceed the German admissible accident limit values. The most recent accident involving a Castor train occurred in February 1997 in the Apach station on the German-French border, when three wagons with spent fuel rods from the Emsland nuclear power plant in Germany were derailed. In view of the fact that the amount of radioactivity in one Castor container is the equivalent of the entire quantity released during the Chernobyl accident, there can be no protection against a catastrophe in the event of a serious Castor accident. THE CASTOR TRANSPORTS ARE SUPERFLUOUS The planned transport is completely unnecessary. Both of the nuclear power plants supplying Ahaus have sufficient storage capacity at their sites to store the spent fuel rods temporarily. In Neckarwestheim there is free storage capacity available up to the year 2000. In Gundremmingen it would be possible to make six fuel rod changes without bottlenecks occurring there; the cooling pond would not be full until the year 2005. These transports are therefore superfluous. In view of the enormous potential hazard, the lack of any need for the transport, the untested containers and the widespread popular resistance, transport constitutes an irresponsible provocation. This shifting around of nuclear waste does not help solve the problem of nuclear waste. Greenpeace has presented a concept for phasing out nuclear energy without using Castor transports. This concept is based on two pillars: reactors that have been in operation for more than twenty years must be shut down immediately for reasons of safety resulting from material problems. Power plants of more recent construction are to be shut down when the storage capacity for spent fuel rods at the plant site is exhausted. This would mean that the last reactor would be taken off the grid in the year 2005. The quantities of nuclear waste to be disposed of and the risks involved in the generation of nuclear energy can only be limited by switching plants off in accordance with a clearly defined time schedule. BROAD-BASED PEACEFUL RESISTANCE TO THE TRANSPORTS MAKES SENSE The hope of the German nuclear industry and politicians that people will get used to these transports and that resistance will gradually die down in time, are not going to be fulfilled. Dangerous Castor transports and nuclear energy are no longer politically acceptable in Germany. People will make use of their right to demonstrate freely and protest against nuclear madness. Greenpeace has always appealed for peaceful protest, most recently in advertisements in major German dailies. Greenpeace demands: Stop Castor transports to Ahaus and Gorleben! Phase out nuclear energy by 2005 at the latest! Economical, energy-efficient, sustainable energy management which conserves natural resources!