Let’s talk about it
Two important players get a chance to speak in the 26th issue of Insights Into the Asse Mine
For over five years, each step of the safe decommissioning of the Asse mine has been debated – with the possibility for the public to participate intensely.
One topic, four perspectives
The most recent issue of Insights Into the Asse Mine publishes the evaluation of important local players:
"Insights Into the Asse Mine No. 27" (October 2014)
- Christiana Steinbrügge has been District Administrator of the rural district of Wolfenbüttel since 2013 and at the same time Chairwoman of the Asse-2 Monitoring Group.
- Stefanie Nöthel is Vice-President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection and represents the Federal Office in the meetings held by the Monitoring Group.
- Udo Dettmann is board member of the citizens' initiative AufpASSEn e.V. and member of the Monitoring Group.
- The journalist Katrin Teschner is managing editor of "Braunschweiger Zeitung".
How do they evaluate what was achieved in the past years? Where do they see need for change? How can the participation of citizens be optimised?
That the opinions may widely differ and are not necessarily in compliance with the editor's opinion, is in the nature of such a complex project and pilot project as the decommissioning of the Asse mine: Positive evaluations of the progress made underground regarding the stabilisation of the mine and local workplaces are opposed by sceptical evaluations regarding schedules and organisation and speeding up possibilities.
Plain text is key for an open discussion – and expressly requested. However, it is vital that decisions need to be taken even if no consensus in a matter has been reached. This requires a co-ordinated procedure whose atmosphere remains constructive, where arguments are exchanged instead of polemics and especially: Where everyone is aware of their role.
Visiting the miners
Still more immediately affected by the Asse problems are the workers in the mine. Many people are confident in having their own opinion about these workers – but only rarely are the workers themselves asked for their opinion. However, without the hard, apparently unspectacular work underground, the retrieval of the nuclear waste is inconceivable. The most recent issue of Insights Into the Asse Mine therefore portrays those who don't talk much about their job but do a lot for everyone's future.
Insights Into the Asse Mine – a magazine about topics around the Asse II mine
Insights Into the Asse Mine has been distributed since 2009 as supplement of Braunschweiger Zeitung and Wolfenbütteler Schaufenster. Publisher is the BfS. On a regular basis, the magazine informs about topics around the Asse II mine. Insights Into the Asse Mine combines journalistic requirements in terms of the form it is presented and diversity of opinion as well of the concern of the BfS public relations to present the knowledge of its own experts in a comprehensible and easy to understand manner.