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Where will Germany dispose of its nuclear waste in the future? Experts have identified 90 possible locations. Gorleben is out of the running, Bavaria is getting more interesting.
According to the knowledge of the Federal Agency for Final Storage, 90 areas in Germany have favorable geological conditions for a deposit of nuclear waste. The Gorleben Salt Dome in Lower Saxony is not included, as can be seen in the subareas of the interim report released Monday.
If the overlap of some areas is taken into account, according to the report, 54 percent of the land area in Germany is designated as a sub-zone. The subareas are found in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony, but also in the eastern states of Germany.
Reducing can take years
Pre-determination of a location is far from related to this. In the months and years to come, potential locations will gradually shrink taking into account additional criteria, such as population density.
However, the debate on the final storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste should get under way, especially in the areas that will now be examined more closely.
The deposit will be built underground in salt, clay or crystalline, that is, mostly granite. The location should be in 2031 and containers with radioactive waste should be stored underground from 2050.
“Favorable geological conditions”
First, the report lists all regions of Germany “which are expected to have favorable geological conditions for the safe disposal of radioactive waste”, as required by the relevant law. That is why there are still quite a few and sometimes quite large areas. It will only get more specific in the next few years. The so-called location regions are selected from the subareas, which are explored in more detail throughout the day. Some of them are also explored underground.
After a long period of trouble with the Gorleben Salt Dome, the search for a repository was completely restarted. Starting from a “white map”, in which each location is fundamentally possible, the possible locations are gradually reduced according to scientific criteria. However, in the end, politicians should make the decision about the location, based on scientific findings. Citizens, communities, and organizations can get involved in the process through various formats.
Gorleben was a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement
Above all, there were problems with Gorleben, who had become a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement. Even before the report was released, some called for the salt dome to be excluded from the search for “politically burned”. But the Bavarian state government has also caused outrage by questioning the search process and insisting that hiding in Bavaria is not appropriate. They both question the “white map” principle, which is only being phased out on the basis of measurable criteria.
The Greens, among others, insist on this principle, whose roots also lie in the anti-nuclear movement. “Now is the first time that science is on the train and it must also leave it alone,” said the vice-president of the Bundestag parliamentary group, Oliver Krischer, of the dpa. In Gorleben’s case, there was primarily a political decision. In the 1970s it was decided to install a repository there. For this reason, “a region almost completely rebelled.”
