CASTOR® type casks are used the world over for safe transport and interim storage of spent fuel and waste from reprocessing. The responsibility of GNS includes the further development, fabrication of the casks as well as the loading. More than 1,500 CASTOR® type casks have already been loaded and stored in sites all over the world.
The technical principle of the transport and storage casks is the following: The radiation emitted by the radioactive inventory is safely shielded by the cask body. The casks are closed with two lids. This “double lid system” guarantees the safe confinement of the radioactive inventory. The leaktightness of the casks is permanently monitored. Fuel assembly baskets inside the cask ensure heat dissipation away from the fuel assemblies and, in particular, the subcriticality of the fissible materials still contained in the spent fuel. The casks are designed to withstand even the most extreme external impact, e. g. accidents during transport, fire or air plane crash.
Using the GNS quiver-system special or damaged fuel rods can be loaded into CASTOR®-Spent-Fuel casks as well. The removal of these special or damaged fuel rods is a an important precondition for the dismantling of a shut down power plant.
The casks meet the high requirements defined by the internationally accepted Safety Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).