German State Government Analysis: Export of THTR Spent Fuel NOT Legal
On November 12, 2014, the Committee of Science and Education of the German Bundestag (Parliament) will discuss the issue of export of German commercial spent fuel to SRS. As part of that debate, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has released an analysis that it commissioned determining that the export of the THTR spent fuel is not legal.
The analysis, dated February 2, 2014, determined, among other things, that:
1. The THTR gas-cooled reactor was not a research reactor and was a commercial reactor.
2. Reprocessing of the spent fuel in the US is not allowed under German law.
3. The material involved is high-level nuclear waste and its export to the US would constitute a breach of Euratom directives.
See “Rechtliche Zulässigkeit der Verbringung der bestrahlten THTR-Brennelementekugeln in die USA zum Zwecke der Wiederaufarbeitung und des Verbleibs unter Berücksichtigung des europäischen Rechts und diesbezügliche Rechtsschutzmöglichkeiten Dritter” (Legal admissibility of shipments of irradiated fuel elements THTR-balls in the United States for the purpose of reprocessing and fate in the light of European law and related legal protection of third parties) linked here.
The analysis was commissioned by the Ministeriums für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
(Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia)
Photo above: SRS Watch joins local citizens outside the Ahaus storage facility in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where the THTR spent fuel is stored. Ahaus is located in northwest Germany near the Dutch border.