Return to sender.

The German and French governments announced that they had reached an agreement in principle to allow the return to Germany by the end of 2024 of nuclear waste that had been processed in France.

According to French law, nuclear waste that enters the territory, in particular to be treated at the Orano plant in La Hague (Manche), cannot remain there in the long term.

The remainder of German waste which was still in France should therefore leave in accordance with the schedule agreed between the two countries, said a source close to the matter Thursday morning.

This new agreement, which links the French Orano and four electricians active in Germany (RWE, PreussenElektra, EnBW and Vattenfall), has obtained the green light from the two governments and must now be formalized in the coming weeks, according to this source.

2024 instead of 2040 ...

"France is conducting negotiations with Germany with a view to speeding up the return of radioactive waste from the processing of German spent fuel to La Hague", for its part indicated the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.

He confirmed in a statement that a "solution" had been found for the repatriation of this waste on time.

The technical solution envisaged previously would have led to "the horizon of the decade 2040", which would have constituted for France an "unacceptable" delay, according to the ministry, which regrets the delays accumulated by the industrialists in this file.

The German Ministries of Economy and Environment also confirmed in a statement that a solution had been found for the transfer to be carried out "by 2024".

Less bulky, but more radioactive

According to usual practice, it is not actually the same waste as that which entered France that will be returned but “the equivalent in mass and radioactivity”.

However, instead of sending intermediate radioactive waste back to Germany, as was initially planned, France will ultimately send high level waste back there.

As they are more radioactive, it will take less volume to send the same level of radioactivity back to Germany. Instead of 17 planned convoys, the solution thus provides for sending vitrified high-level radioactive waste in a single transport by train before the end of 2024, specifies the source familiar with the matter. Metal packaging with very low radioactive activity must also be returned on the same date.

“In short, Germany is taking back the same amount of radioactivity as initially planned.

But the volume of waste is smaller, and therefore the number of transports is reduced ”, sums up the German side.

Germany specifies that the transport will be destined for the small town of Philippsburg in Baden-Württemberg.

Thirty empty containers which were used to transport fuel will be transferred to Ahaus (North Rhine-Westphalia).

Risk of blockade by environmental activists

These transports are politically sensitive in the country and are regularly the object of demonstrations or attempted blockades by environmental activists. German electricians called on Orano (at the time Cogema) for the treatment and recycling of their spent fuel between 1978 and 2008, for a quantity representing 5,310 tonnes. Most of the waste has already returned to Germany, but there is still a residue, which is the subject of the new solution.

Orano will have to be paid for this operation.

The amount is still under commercial discussion.

"Germany confirmed on June 10, 2021 the possibility of mobilizing the Fund for the financing of nuclear elimination (KENFO) to allow the financing of this solution", specifies the French government.

The German government, for its part, believes that its overall burden "will be reduced, both financially and in terms of security".

Germany, which decided in 2011 to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, has long been the first foreign customer of the La Hague plant.

It has other foreign countries among its customers, such as Japan and Belgium.

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