Who’s in charge
GNS is entrusted by the waste owners with the complete fulfillment of their repatriation obligations. For this purpose, GNS develops, manufactures and supplies the CASTOR® casks, monitors their loading in the reprocessing plants and commissions other companies to prepare and carry out the transports.
For the transports from Sellafield these are the following companies:
- Sellafield Ltd. is the operator of the reprocessing plant and a subsidiary of the state-owned NDA Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
- NTS Nuclear Transport Solutions formerly INS International Nuclear Services Ltd. also belongs to the state-owned NDA, handles the international reprocessing contracts in England and is commissioned by GNS with the transports from Sellafield.
- As a subsidiary of INS, Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) is the world’s most experienced shipper of nuclear cargoes. PNTL has three vessels that are dedicated to transporting the highest classification (INF3) of nuclear material.
- DAHER Nuclear Technologies GmbH - the former Nuclear Cargo & Services (NCS), a former subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG - carries out the transports from German seaports (rail/road)
Competent authorities and surveyors for the transports from Sellafield:
In the UK:
- Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
- Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR)
- Interior authorities/police
In Germany:
- Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management/BASE: Transport (§ 4 AtG) and storage licences (§ 6 AtG) as well as cask approval
- Federal Railway Authority (EBA) as transport supervisory authority for rail transport
- Federal police and the state interior authorities: Securing the transports
- The federal state supervisory authorityfor handling within nuclear installations (§ 7 AtG)
- TÜV Nord for canister inspection for the BASE, also for cask loading and dispatch for the EBA
- GRS Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit as expert for BASE
Accepting/Storing
- The federal BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH as operator of the interim storage facilities