Urenco Germany Commissions 59,000-Tonne Uranium Oxide Storage Facility

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 6, uranium enrichment service company Urenco officially commissioned a uranium oxide (U₃O₈) storage facility in Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a planned maximum storage capacity of 59,000 tonnes. The facility is part of the expansion plan approved for the Gronau uranium enrichment plant in 2005 and was approved for construction by the nuclear licensing authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The storage building was completed in 2014, and prior to this official commissioning, the project had fulfilled the legal and operational conditions required for safe storage.

The expansion license obtained by the Gronau uranium enrichment plant in 2005 permits an annual uranium enrichment capacity of up to 4.5 million separative work units (SWU). In the license conditions, the state government required Urenco to build additional storage facilities for storing uranium oxide converted from depleted uranium generated during the uranium enrichment process. What has been commissioned this time is a storage building within the scope of the existing license, and it does not involve adding new uranium enrichment production lines or increasing the plant's licensed enrichment capacity.

According to the implementation arrangements published by Urenco, in the coming years, the depleted uranium generated at the Gronau plant will be shipped respectively to Orano's processing facility in Pierrelatte, France, and to Urenco's tails management facility in Capenhurst, United Kingdom. The two facilities are responsible for converting uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) into triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈), and the processed material is then shipped back to Gronau, Germany, for long-term storage. The Orano facility in France and the Urenco facility in the United Kingdom undertake the conversion processing task, while the Gronau facility in Germany undertakes the subsequent storage task.

The storage facility commissioned this time receives depleted uranium oxide after chemical conversion. According to Urenco's technical data, U₃O₈ is insoluble in water, non-flammable, has relatively high chemical stability, and does not readily volatilize even at relatively high temperatures. The company uses this material form for long-term storage and carries out material management in accordance with existing nuclear licensing requirements.

Under current German regulations, depleted uranium is classified as material with potential reuse value. The safety report for the final expansion phase of the Gronau uranium enrichment plant in 2002 assessed the uranium-235 content retained in depleted uranium and the possibility of future reuse. At present, Urenco has not yet determined a specific reuse plan, but it has maintained corresponding financial provisions for potential recycling, reprocessing, or final disposal.