Krantz supplies ventilation systems for Konrad repository

Aachen/Essen/Saarbrücken. Krantz GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Essen-based STEAG GmbH, is a specialist in ventilation engineering and the manufacture of filter systems and components. The long-established Aachen-based company has now been awarded the contract to supply the ventilation systems for the construction of two new buildings on the site of the Schacht Konrad mine, the planned final repository in Germany for radioactive waste. The buildings, designed for low to medium level radioactive waste, will be erected by Ed. Züblin AG as the EPC contractor in accordance with an award decision by the responsible Federal Company for Final Disposal (BGE). Züblin, for its part, has subcontracted the installation of the ventilation systems to the specialists from Krantz.

“We are very pleased that our company has been entrusted with the engineering and installation of the highly specialized ventilation systems for the planned transfer and buffer facility of the future final repository Schacht Konrad. This decision is not only a business success, but it also reflects Krantz's special technical expertise and capabilities in the field of ventilation and filtration technology,” says Norbert Schröder, Managing Director of Krantz GmbH.

Construction of the transfer building is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2023, with completion in 2025. In the transfer building, the delivered packages of low and intermediate level radioactive waste will first be radiologically checked, then unloaded from trucks and rail cars and finally prepared for transport underground. In the event of unforeseeable shutdowns of the mine system, the buffer storage building directly connected to the transfer building can temporarily receive containers until they can finally be taken underground.

Krantz technology meets the highest safety requirements
The design and technical requirements for the buildings to be constructed are correspondingly high. The buildings are planned and implemented to be earthquake-proof under the supervision of the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE). Furthermore, particularly high safety requirements are placed on the ventilation systems to be installed there. Krantz’s proven ventilation technology guarantees safe and trouble-free operation of the systems.

Convincing references
After all, it is specifically in the field of nuclear ventilation systems as well as emergency systems that Krantz has successfully made a name for itself in a number of other projects in the past. In addition, Krantz has been equipping high-security laboratories of the Robert Koch Institute, the Friedrich Löffler Institute for Animal Health, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, and the laboratories of the University of Marburg with high-performance filter and ventilation technology for decades, which is becoming increasingly important in times of pandemics.

Strong group of companies
“Our winning of the contract for this project shows once again that STEAG has truly comprehensive and detailed energy technology expertise within the Group, which goes far beyond issues of energy generation and distribution. Indeed, STEAG’s broad technical base enables it to offer solutions from a single source for almost all energy-related challenges,” says Dr. Ralf Schiele, Director for Market and Technology at STEAG GmbH. This makes STEAG an important enabler of the energy transition, whether it is a matter of ensuring security of supply in the face of the current energy crisis, the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy or – as in this case – the concrete implementation of the nuclear phase-out.

Photo: Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH