Germany

Operating Reactors: 17
Reactors in Construction: 0
Reactors Being Decommissioned: 17

High Level Waste in Interim Storage Facilities:
5,830 t HM fuel elements + 1,838 m³ HLW

For Reprocessing:
6,348 t HM fuel elements (F, GB, B, D)

Other Nuclear Waste:
In Germany, 109,924 m³ low and medium level waste is stored in interim storage facilities, and 83,753 m³ in by now closed geological final disposal facilities. A new final disposal site is envisioned to be commissioned in 2019. There is no information available on the amount of very low level waste released as 'conventional waste'.

Waste Management Concept for High Level Waste:

Since reprocessing has been abandoned inn Germany, spent fuel elements are stored on an interim basis for 30-40 years at the nuclear plant sites. In the long run, Germany prefers the final disposal of high level waste in deep geological formations without the option of retrieval.

Final Repository Situation for High Level Waste:

In Germany, no site for a final repository has been named so far. The salt dome in Gorleben is being analyzed by a subsurface investigation for its eligibility. It is uncertain if a new search for other possible sites will be conducted.

Problems:

The eligibility of the salt dome of Gorleben as a site for a final repository facility is highly disputed as it was identified without taking the geoscientific and safety-related criteria into consideration. The closed final disposal sites for low and medium level waste in Asse and Morsleben are at risk of collapsing.