October 7, 2003 Dutch Intermediate Storage Facility Opened Dutch Intermediate Storage Facility Opened Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands officially opened the HABOG intermediate storage facility for high-level waste (HLW) on 30th September. The intermediate storage facility is located near the Borssele nuclear power plant in the Vlissingen industrial area of the Netherlands. Operated by COVRA (Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste) it is designed to store HLW for 100 years. The two Dutch nuclear power plants at Dodewaard (closed in 1997) and the currently operational Borssele plant, both of which have contracts to reprocess their spent fuel abroad, will store the returned HLW at the facility pending an eventual decision on final disposal. The facility will also accommodate spent fuel from the research reactors in Petten and Delft. Although a decision on the final solution for long-lived residues has not been taken, the Dutch government is following a strategy of eventual retrievable disposal in suitable rock formations deep underground, and to this end finances a contribution to international research by the Dutch nuclear research and consultancy group, NRG. Source: NRC/Various Editor: Len Green E-mail: editors@worldnuclear.org