Current situation of the Asse from a mining point of view
Regarding the decommissioning of the Asse mine, the objective is the long-term safety of man and environment in terms of impacts from the radioactive waste stored in the mine. According to the latest findings, this can only be achieved by retrieving the waste stored in the Asse mine. This evaluation is based on a comparison of different decommissioning options, in which, as a result of previously determined scientific criteria that had also been discussed with the public, one arrived at this conclusion at the beginning of 2010. In terms of this assessment nothing has changed. That was also a point of discussion during the meeting of the "Asse 2 Accompanying Group" on 2 December 2011. The head of the BfS department responsible for the Asse mine, Dr. Michael Siemann, gave a lecture on this topic and on the experiences gained in the course of the Asse licensing procedure.
BfS commissioned critical mining-specific evaluation
Irrespective of this, the BfS is continuously observing the security situation in the Asse mine. Recently and similar as in the past, the BfS commissioned its experts responsible for assessing Asse in terms of mining with an up-to-date statement on the mining situation in Asse, in particular in view of the experiences with the long implementation periods for the single steps in the previous nuclear licensing procedure. The statement is no position paper of the BfS or a basic re-evaluation of the overall situation in Asse. That will require the expertise of other BfS experts involved in the remediation of Asse, such as radiation protection, who carry out the basic radiological evaluation in terms of population, staff and environment.
The aim of the BfS is to realise the best possible security that can be achieved in these extremely difficult conditions. According to the present state of knowledge it can be achieved by retrieving the radioactive waste from the Asse mine. The evaluation clearly shows: If the amount of time required for the planning, licensing and implementation of the necessary steps continues to be the same, this option will become improbable due to the mine’s stability problems. The BfS informed the "Asse 2 Accompanying Group" about this fact on 2 December 2011.
The critical look at stability is not coupled to a certain decommissioning option. Corresponding nuclear licensing procedures and thus corresponding time required would also have to be applied to alternative decommissioning variants such as relocation or complete backfilling.
BfS wishes to discuss experiences gained in licensing procedures in technical workshop
Based on the previous experiences and in particular due to the time required for the licensing procedures, the BfS intends to conduct a technical workshop in January 2012 with experts, all authorities involved, "Asse 2 Accompanying Group" and other stakeholders. The objective of the workshop is to identify options to accelerate the time-consuming nuclear procedures and to discuss the technical challenges relating to the mine.