Following more than two years of work, a commission looking into the storage of Germany’s high-level radioactive waste has today submitted its final report to the country’s government. The report provides a recommended method for the disposal of the waste in a geologic repository.
World Nuclear News 5th July 2016 read more »
The Germany government has already begun procedures to shut down all of the country’s nuclear reactors. A committee called to make a plan for the country’s nuclear waste problem has said it may take until next century. In 2011, Chancellor’s Angela Merkel’s government announced that all of Germany’s nuclear reactors would be slowly phased out and shut down by 2022, leaving the country with a pressing need to find a storage facility for its atomic waste. However, a two-year investigation by top scientists, industry leaders and representatives of civil society announced on Tuesday that such a facility may not be ready until the next century. Presenting their final report, even the decades-long timetable was described by leading committee member Michael Müller as “ambitious.” The panel had hoped to arrive at a solution where a facility would be ready by 2050, but Müller said such a schedule was logistically impossible.The first challenge is to find an appropriate site. One possible place is the controversial, and small, waste facility in Gorleben in Lower-Saxony, which has long been the flashpoint of intense confrontation between police and anti-nuclear activists. Though Müller said that other sites were also being looked at, and there had been no decision on Gorleben as of yet.
Deutsche Welle 5th July 2016 read more »
A 700-page document prepared by a special commission outlines the required criteria for Germany’s yet-to-be-decided final disposal site for nuclear waste. The report has revived a long and controversial debate. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Socialist Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) finally agree on something: “We have come up with a good compromise,” announced Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) and Michael Müller (SPD) Tuesday in Berlin. “But it was hard work.” For the last two years, both politicians have co-chaired a commission with a complicated task: What characteristics must a final disposal site for nuclear waste in Germany have? Questions involved geological formations – that is, salt, granite or clay; depth below the earth’s surface; various methods; and how citizens might participate in the search for an appropriate site. It all sounds technical and a bit boring, but to date, every debate related to nuclear energy in Germany has been highly political and very emotional. And so it is here.
Deutsche Welle 5th July 2016 read more »