Lower Saxony Environment Ministry grants licence for handling radioactive substances according to § 7 Radiation Protection Ordinance
The Lower Saxony Environment Ministry (NMU) approved of an application for handling radioactive substances according to § 7 Radiation Protection Ordinance (StrlSchV) in the Asse repository for which the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) had filed an application on 21 April 2009. The handling of these substances does now have a new legal basis.
In the licence it has been laid down how radioactive substances up to the 100-fold of the release levels are to be handled outside the emplacement chambers. The necessary radiation protection measures are regulated as well.
In detail, the licence concerns contaminated liquids, solid matter and gases - mainly, however, salt grit and saline solutions which have - among others - accumulated in front of emplacement chamber 12 in a brine swamp. The old licence for use and manipulation expired decades ago and has not been renewed so far. Since then, radiation protection has been regulated through directives of the NMU and the Land Mining Authority.
After the BfS had taken over the mine and it had been classified as repository for radioactive waste according to the Atomic Energy Act, the radiation protection directive according to § 34 StrlSchV – which had not existed to this date – was elaborated and implemented preliminarily by the BfS. On the basis of this operational system of rules, a safe handling of radioactive substances was ensured until the licence according to § 7 StrlSchV was granted. This radiation protection directive was now approved of by the NMU within the scope of the application according to § 7 StrlSchV.