Decommissioning of the GNS plant in Duisburg-Wanheim is completed

On 31 March 2020, GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH vacated its former premises in Duisburg-Wanheim, returned the buildings and the premises to the lessor and thus terminated its activities at the site after 35 years. Since 1985, GNS had been processing low to intermediate-level radioactive waste from the operation and decommissioning of German nuclear power plants in three rented halls of the former Thyssen precision forge and packing it for subsequent interim storage or final disposal.

In the course of the decommissioning, all facilities and installations for waste treatment and packaging were completely removed by GNS and, with the involvement of independent experts, the freedom from contamination of the entire site was demonstrated to the supervisory authority. This was the prerequisite for GNS to return the radiation protection handling permit required for operation by then as early as mid-March. Thus, the site can be put to conventional use again in the future.

The employees who were last employed at the Duisburg plant will in future be deployed at other GNS locations.

Background:

In Duisburg-Wanheim, GNS has operated a facility for the packaging of low- to intermediate-level radioactive waste from the operation and decommissioning of German nuclear power plants since 1985. For this purpose, the waste was generally compacted, dried and packed in containers suitable for interim storage and final disposal. With the gradual shutdown of the German nuclear power plants, the amount of operational waste as processed at the Duisburg facility of GNS is decreasing. At the same time, new capacities for processing local decommissioning waste have been created at the power plant sites. Therefore, GNS already announced the decision to close the Duisburg plant in December 2013.