Zwischenlagerbecken

Zwischenlagerbecken are water-filled basins used to store spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste temporarily after it has been taken from a nuclear reactor. They serve to cool the fuel, provide radiation shielding, and keep the waste in a stable, retrievable environment until a final disposal route or reprocessing becomes available.

Typically located at reactor sites or at centralized interim storage facilities, these basins use deionized water to remove decay heat and prevent corrosion. The spent fuel assemblies are placed in racks submerged in the water, and the systems include cooling, water purification, filtration, leak detection, and water quality monitoring. Shielding and containment are implemented to protect workers and the environment. Interim storage is designed as a temporary solution, often spanning decades, during which the material remains retrievable before transfer to dry storage or a geological repository.

Safety and regulatory oversight cover design requirements, criticality safety, radiation monitoring, and emergency planning, as well as physical security. Basins are engineered to withstand potential accidents and, where appropriate, seismic events, with redundant cooling and containment features. The use of Zwischenlagerbecken is generally part of a broader waste management strategy that aims to move material from wet to dry storage as aging and licensing processes progress, and ultimately toward long-term disposal in a geological repository.