The Asse mine
How a mountain resists the desirable and great progress is made for the safety of the mine at the same time
An over 100-year-old mine in a condition its age would suggest – that is contrary to a task with rigorous safety requirements demanded by the Atomic Energy Act. On the other hand, however, it is the real and irrevocable foundation of one of the major technical challenges. The aim is the permanently safe decommissioning of the Asse II mine. As of today, this can only be achieved by retrieving the emplaced wastes. Only when the wastes are recovered, can the legally prescribed protection goals be complied with. At the same time the mine must be stabilised to create the prerequisites for such a task.
"The Asse relic that has been left to us has created facts that do not adapt to what is required"
, says König. "All parties involved are encouraged to avoid raising irredeemable expectations in all the operational procedures"
. In the end, this would lead to the people in the area becoming uncertain. This would also affect those who, day by day, take care of the remediation of the Asse mine – whether as scientist or miner. On a technical and social scale, the parties involved in the Asse project enter new territory every day. For many operations there are no templates and no recipes. We are well advised to assume real conditions and consequently pursue what is feasible, avoiding unnecessary delays.
The challenges in the Asse project include, apart from responding to technical and mining difficulties, the constructive and fact-oriented dialogue with citizens. In view of the long periods of time associated with the remediation, however, structures are required that promote open communications among all sides. Central contact for the facility operator is the Asse-2 Monitoring Group pooling local opinions and communicating these to the BfS. The BfS therefore supports the chairpersons' initiative to further develop the work jointly. Because the togetherness has shown that not only the mutual understanding for the challenges has increased continuously but that also in many points, the contribution of the Monitoring Group has led to an improvement in the approach.
When visiting the mine, the President provided information about the great progress in the mine's safety and the current developments and challenges. The focus was on just launched exploration drillings for the recovery shaft, via which it is planned to retrieve the wastes later on, and stabilisation measures to be carried out soon. In terms of security and site monitoring of the mine König presented a recently completed observation point in accordance with the latest technology.
Furthermore, König promoted a communication culture prepared to tolerate failures. It must not happen that the fear of making a mistake leads to security thinking. This would hinder the procedures instead of promoting them. In this context all parties involved bear responsibility for the successful and safe decommissioning of the Asse mine.