Licensing procedure pursuant to § 9 Atomic Energy Act for the fact-finding
Compendium of the decision-making process: Licensing procedure for the fact finding (in German)
The Federal Environment Ministry (BMUB) had tasked the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) with conducting a licensing procedure according to § 9 Atomic Energy Act (AtG) for the fact-finding, as well. The competent licensing authority is the Lower Saxon Environment Ministry (NMU).
Once the documents required for the application amounting to about 1,000 pages had been filed, the NMU had granted the licence to the BfS on 21 April 2011. This licence comprising approximately 100 pages and 32 requirements to some extent differs from the procedure applied for. The time required until the start of the first drilling depended on the requirements associated with the licence. Only after all 32 requirements had been fulfilled, was it possible to start the actual fact-finding on 1 June 2012.
The BfS pursued the objective to begin with the first drilling as soon as possible in order to gain knowledge of the state of the emplacement chamber and the waste stored there. Therefore, one started to set up the working area in front of emplacement chamber 7 in the approved way with the corresponding official acceptances already while the requirements were being worked at. The safety of the staff, the population and the environment is always key.
The BfS recommends: Accelerated procedure pursuant to the Right to Avert Danger (Gefahrenabwehrrecht)
In view of the hazardous situation, the BfS had recommended to speed up the works in the Asse mine. The hazardous state of the facility is a result of the inflow of saline solution into the repository, its problem with stability against collapse and the continuous deformation of the mine. If such a hazardous situation lasts for a longer period of time, it can turn into damage at short notice. This could mean that limit values for levels for levels of effective radiation exposure are exceeded in future.
Although a course of action pursuant to the Right to avert Danger would have meant a greater legal responsibility for the BfS, the Federal Office was willing to take this course of action, if this would mean a quick start to the test phase.
Licensing authority BMUB: Licensing procedure pursuant to § 9 AtG
As the licensing authority, the Federal Ministry for the Environment is of the opinion that for professional reasons it is not "irrefutable" to evoke the Right to avert Danger. Therefore, the BMUB asked the BfS to start a licence procedure pursuant to § 9 of the Atomic Energy Act. This article regulates the treatment, processing and other uses of nuclear fuels outside of facilities which are subject to authorisation. Furthermore, the BMUB appealed to the NMU to carry out the licensing procedure quickly and use all permissible optimisation measures.
Background: Safe decommissioning of the Asse mine
Since the Law on Speeding up the Retrieval of Radioactive Waste and the Decommissioning of the Asse II Mine ("Lex Asse") became effective on 24 April 2013, the legal mandate is to retrieve the radioactive waste. According to the current state of knowledge, the best way to safely decommission the Asse repository is to retrieve the waste. Between 1967 and 1978, around 126.000 drums containing low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste were emplaced in the Asse mine. On 1 January 2009 the BfS took over the responsibility for the Asse repository.