2024-08-16 03:24:58
According to government plans, a nuclear waste repository should actually be ready by 2050. However, the search for a suitable location will probably take much longer.
According to a government study, the search for a final storage facility for highly radioactive waste will take decades. The year 2031, which is the target date in the Site Selection Act, is by no means achievable, according to the Öko-Institut study, which was available on Wednesday from the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE). “Even with an ideal project process, it must be expected that the process cannot be completed until 2074.”
As early as 2022, the Environment Ministry had admitted, based on another study, that the 2031 date would probably not be feasible. At that time, the study mentioned the date 2046. Deutschlandfunk was the first to report on the Öko-Institut study. The Environment Ministry initially did not comment.
The nuclear waste repository should actually be available from 2050 after the search for a suitable site has been completed. To date, the highly radioactive waste from the decommissioned nuclear power plants has been stored in interim storage facilities, mostly at nuclear power plant sites whose permits expire before 2050.
The search for a site was laid down in detail in a law in three phases. After the closure of the Gorleben storage facility, which had once been considered, the starting point was a “blank” map. This meant that, theoretically, a storage facility could have been built anywhere in Germany.
An initial narrowing down was made in 2020, but large parts of Germany with 90 possible regions were still considered. The Öko-Institut is now proposing to speed up the process by narrowing down the number of regions earlier and thus examining fewer locations more intensively.
The search for a location is explosive, as experience has shown that such a camp in Germany would meet with fierce resistance in the respective federal state and region.
The last protests took place in July at the Asse II nuclear waste storage facility in Lower Saxony. Rainwater is penetrating the former mine, which could make it more difficult to recover the nuclear waste stored there. Read more about this here. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) explained that the stored barrels containing low and medium-level radioactive substances must be recovered “by 2033 at the latest”. The Konrad shaft in the former iron ore mine in Salzgitter is currently being expanded to serve as a final storage facility for low and medium-level radioactive waste.