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90 areas in Germany are potentially suitable as locations for a nuclear deposit. This arises from the interim report of the Federal Agency for Final Storage (BGE). For the first time, the report names specific regions that could be used for the storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Most of the so-called “subareas” of a potential repository are in the north and southeast of Germany, according to the BGE report. The controversial Gorleben Salt Dome, one of the first interim storage facilities in Germany, is out of service. “Therefore, the Gorleben salt dome will not be considered in the BGE’s subsequent work on the proposals on location regions,” the report says.
According to the report, particularly large areas are in Lower Saxony, Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. In total, suitable rock formations have been found underground in around 250,000 square kilometers, that is, 67 percent of the total area of Germany, 54 percent of the BGE is due to overburden. Cities are also included, for example Berlin. According to the report’s maps, Hamburg, Hannover, Schwerin, Stuttgart and Bremen are also in suitable regions. “The subareas identified today are in no way dump sites,” said Stefan Studt, chairman of the board of the Federal Society for Final Morning Storage in Berlin.
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The 70 scientists from the Federal Association for Final Storage (BGE) collected geological data on the geological subsoil throughout Germany over three years. They were primarily looking for three host rocks: salt, clay, and granite.
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Most of the designated areas make up the Tongesteine with almost 130,000 square kilometers in only nine subzones. They are mainly found in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also on the outskirts of Berlin and Brandenburg.
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Salt rock By contrast, it has the smallest stake with only 30,000 square kilometers but 74 sub-areas, mainly in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. So far, the salt domes have been particularly well investigated due to the controversial exploratory mine at Gorleben.
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the Granite formations they make up a good 80,000 square meters in seven sub-areas, which are mainly located in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony.
The three rock formations are especially suitable for storing nuclear waste safely for a long time. In general, highly radioactive material must be stored safely for up to one million years. The choice of the host rock is also political, as the host rocks in northern and southern Germany are very different. For example, Lower Saxony Minister of the Environment Olaf Lies learned of a possible final storage in granite, which is mainly produced in Bavaria.
“We all treated the same, including sites that were already contaminated like Gorleben,” said CDU politician and BGE manager Steffen Kanitz. “Although Gorleben met all the minimum requirements, it was not sufficient from a general geoscientific point of view.” This was mainly due to “insufficient holding capacity” and overload, which was not completely intact.
“Today we announce where there will be no repository under any circumstances,” Kanitz said today in Berlin. The interim report was about pure geological safety.
While France relies on clay stone for disposal and Finland on granite, Germany has a choice between the three host rocks. BGE Managing Director Steffen Kanitz stated that there is no “unequal treatment of host rocks. All three have their advantages and disadvantages.”
The repository question is mainly about 1900 Castor containers with around 27,000 cubic meters of nuclear waste, for which a safe whereabouts should be found after the nuclear disposal decided by the end of 2022. The search is based on the Search Law for repositories approved in 2017.
Since 2017, scientists from the Federal Association for Final Storage (BGE) have been collecting geological data on what it looks like under German soil. To pacify decades of civil protests around the Gorleben nuclear waste storage facility, authorities set the search for a deposit at zero. The researchers assumed a “white map” and treated all areas equally.
