According to present plans and contractual arrangements, approx 25,000
m(3) of waste from nuclear power plant operation, some 10,000 m(3) of
plant and decommissioning waste from the Greifswald and Rheinsberg pl
ants, both of them shut down, and some 5000 m(3) of radioactive waste
from the state collection centers, research establishments, and other
sources required to collect and deliver their waste arisings are to be
stored in the Morsleben radioactive waste repository (Eram). Operatio
n of the Morsleben repository especially helps in the management of so
-called old waste which, for the time being, is stored either in-plant
or kept in out-of-plant interim stores. Eram has accepted radioactive
waste for more than twenty-five years, albeit with a few interruption
s. After the last interruption in February 1991, Eram resumed operatio
n on January 13, 1994. In its current period of operation between Janu
ary 1994 and June 2000, some 40, 000 m(3) of radioactive waste are to
be stored in the repository. The end of the first quarter of 1997 will
mark the midpoint of this period; for this reason, some selected aspe
cts and results of emplacement operations over this period of time wil
l be reported In summary, operation of the Morsleben repository for ra
dioactive waste (Eram) in the period between January 1994 and December
1996 has been almost without problems. All waste registered for final
storage in Eram was accepted and managed in due course.