The German state of Bavaria and the federal Ministry of Environment on 25 October agreed to convert the Research Reactor Munich 2 (FRM-2) at Garching before the end of 2010 to "medium" enriched fuel. The University of Munich is expecting a final license for the operation of the reactor before the end of this year.

(557.5334) WISE Amsterdam - The reactor was designed to use highly enriched uranium fuel (HEU). But as HEU can be used in nuclear weapons, the use of HEU in the FRM-2 has been highly criticized. Now the Bavarian State and the federal government have agreed to use "medium" enriched fuel by 2010.

HEU

Until 2010 the reactor will use 360 kilograms of 93% enriched fuel. Less than 25 kilograms is actually sufficient to construct an "implosion-type" nuclear bomb and twice that amount would be sufficient for a far simpler "gun-type" bomb. It is now agreed that the reactor will use 50% enriched fuel after 2010. According to the IAEA criteria this also has to be classified officially as HEU.

In a letter to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, the US based Nuclear Control Institute (NCI) criticized the use of HEU and referred to the risk of theft by terrorists. "The proposed bomb-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel would be in use and storage at a civilian university that cannot be guarded like a military facility, [...] the question is whether the FRM-2 at Garching can be defended against 19 well-armed, suicidal terrorists attacking from four different directions", warns NCI. It is known that groups like Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda have tried to obtain such materials. NCI urges Schroeder not to license the use of HEU and order the reactor to be converted to low enriched uranium (LEU), which contains less than 20% uranium-235.

The Technical University of Munich in the past resisted adapting the design to LEU as that would have too big consequences for the size of the fuel elements and the reactor core (see WISE News Communique 413.4096: "FRG: public hearing FRM-2"). "While such dubious arguments against conversion might have been tolerable prior to September 11, the new, undeniable terrorist threat now demands that security take prevalence over convenience", said NCI. Research by the US Argonne National Laboratory and the German Darmstadt University made clear that the FRM-2 will be able to carry out equivalent experiments with LEU as with HEU fuel.

The US government has opposed the use of HEU in the FRM-2. In 1978 the Reduced Enrichment in Research & Test Reactors (RERTR) program was established which sought to cut down world use of HEU and the associated proliferation risks. Under that program, operators of research reactors were asked to convert to the use of LEU (see WISE News Communique 441.4353: "HEU-offer for research reactor in Garching?"). If they agree to convert they can in principle still get small amounts of HEU from the US to bridge the gap and sent the spent HEU fuel to the US.

In 1995, the US cancelled a proposed HEU-fueled reactor, the Advanced Neutron Source, on grounds that the bomb-grade fuel presented "a non-proliferation policy concern".

Only four operating in Europe continue to use HEU, of which one (in The Netherlands) is in the process of converting to LEU, two others (in France and Belgium) have pledged to convert to LEU as soon as feasible, and the last (in France) will probably shut down before it can be converted.

It has long been unclear where FRM-2 would get its fuel from. It was said in 1994 that fuel from the shutdown Hamm-Uentrop Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR) could be reprocessed to recover present HEU from these fuel elements (see WISE News Communique 413.4096: "FRG: public hearing FRM-2"). In 1995, a senior official of the federal research ministry said that the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), responsible for the purchase of the HEU, had found a "Western source" but the ESA refused to reveal the source (see WISE News Communique 441.4353: "HEU-offer for research reactor in Garching?").

When France signed an accord with Russia in 1996 for HEU fuel, it was said that French origin HEU fuel could also be transferred to FRM-2 (see WISE News Communique 454.4490: "Russian high enriched uranium for France"). Due to problems between the Russian Ministry of Science and Minatom, the fuel was not delivered to France (see WISE News Communique 504.4967: "Surprise: French research reactor converts to LEU").

In 1998, Germany and Russia approved an agreement for the delivery of HEU for FRM-2 (see WISE News Communique 488.4842: Germany & Russia agree on HEU supply deal"). When Belgium recently applied for "bridge-the-gap" HEU from the US for the BR-2 reactor, it was said that BR-2 already had enough HEU to run for years. There was also the suspicion that the surplus HEU could be sent to FRM-2 (see WISE News Communique 552.5301: "Belgium: BR-2 already has enough bomb-grade fuel, but still wants more").

Final license

With the agreement on conversion, the Bavarian State expects that the final license can be granted soon. The Federal Ministry of the Environment however stated that a number of issues still have to be solved before the final license can be released. Although the Bavarian State is responsible for the license, the federal government has to make a judgement on the draft license. Special attention is to be given to the issues of liability in case of an accident and consistency with the federal Atomic Law, for example the management of spent fuel.

In August 2000, a first draft license was sent to the federal environment ministry. According to the ministry, there are still "fundamental deficiencies" in the draft and that the draft itself was still the subject of changes. The Reactor Safety Commission (RSK) judged that there is a lack of evidence and documents on some central issues, for instance on the instruction manual and accident management. Also not solved yet is the issue of waste management. A proposal for the conditioning and storage of spent HEU fuel is still to be made.

The federal environment ministry stated that a revised draft license still has to be sent to the ministry for approval. Only after that approval can the Bavarian state government issue the final license.

The Bavarian Environment Minister, Werner Schnappauf, has now demanded that the federal environment minister Juergen Trittin accelerate the procedure. It is clear that the Bavarian State is frustrated about the delay and the way the federal ministry is handling the license request. "If the Federal Ministry of the Environment, within the scope of its federal supervision, requires additional measures for the operation of the research reactor, they must announce these finally and without delay. The Bavarian draft license has already been 15 months at the Federal Ministry of Environment waiting for approval. Its contents are complete and it is finished", said a press release of the Bavarian ministry.

The Bundestag, the German parliament, will discuss the use of HEU next week on request of the Green and Social Democrat parties.

Sources: Press release Bavarian Ministry of Science, 25 October 2001; Press release federal Ministry of Environment, 25 October 2001; Press release Bavarian Ministry of Environment, 26 October 2001; Press release Nuclear Control Institute, 29 October 2001; S¸ddeutsche Zeitung, 31 October 2001

Contact: Buerger Gegen Atomreaktor Garching e.V, Danziger Straþe 19, 85748 Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 30 21 or +49 89 31 77 28 13
Fax: +49 89 326 23 44 or +49 89 31 77 28 14
Email: buerger-gegen-atomreaktor@frm2.de
Web: www.frm2.de