BfS President König to take over the new Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management

Wolfram König, President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection 1999-2017

After the Act on the Rearrangement of Organisational Structures in the Field of Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste Disposal has become effective, the federal government has now filled central management positions. Wolfram König, President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, will now lead the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BfE). Federal Minister Barbara Hendricks has appointed Ursula Heinen-Esser, Ewold Seeba, and Hans-Albert Lennarth founding directors of the new Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH, BGE).

"The reorganisation in radioactive waste disposal creates a key prerequisite for an efficient search for a repository to host highly dangerous substances for which we now have to bear responsibility. I am aware of the great challenge that we must find a site to host a safe repository especially for high-level radioactive wastes in Germany and that this needs to be done quickly and in a transparent process," Wolfram König explained. He brings his comprehensive experiences into the new federal authority with regard to radiation protection and requirements for a safe final disposal of radioactive wastes. For more than 17 years he has been leading the BfS who was so far responsible for central tasks which are now transferred to the new BfE. He is an experienced moderator between politicians and society.

The BfE will bundle licensing, supervisory and regulatory tasks in the field of radioactive waste management. With respect to the search for a repository for high-level radioactive wastes, the authority has a key function. Of special importance here is the participation of the public.

President König’s experiences and recommendations have been of great importance to the reorganisation in the field of radioactive waste disposal. In June 2014, he made concrete proposals to reorganise the structures in this field. In June 2016, the Bundestag decided the Act on the reorganisation. 

His tasks as BfS President included regulation relating to and licensing of interim storage facilities and Castor transports. He licensed interim storage facilities for nuclear fuels at the locations of the nuclear power plants, which helped reduce Castor transports. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 he gave order to have also examined the impact of a targeted crash of a wide-bodied aircraft on interim storage facilities.

Besides, the operation of the repository projects Asse, Konrad and Morsleben and the former exploratory mine Gorleben were also in König’s area of responsibility as BfS President. He had already been responsible for Morsleben previously, when he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Regional Development.

In the area of radiation protection, König has always initiated pioneering investigations. When he was leading the "Radar Commission" established by the Defence Committee of the German Bundestag, he dealt with the issue of danger to the employed soldiers due to radiation emitted by former radar equipment of the Federal Armed Forces and the National People’s Army. On the basis of these results, former members of the armed forces were granted compensation. Between 2002 and 2008, he had the German Mobile Telecommunication Research Programme conducted, which was one of the largest project in this sector worldwide. At the end of 2007, the BfS published a study that had examined the risk of cancer in the vicinity of nuclear power plants.

In 2009, the federal government transferred the operator responsibility for the safe decommissioning of the damaged Asse II nuclear waste storage facility to the BfS under his leadership.

Background

The purpose of the Act on the Rearrangement of Organisational Structures in the Field of Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste Disposal is basically to structure the organisations and authorities in such a manner that future tasks such as the search for a site for a repository for high-level radioactive wastes can be implemented successfully. Furthermore, the goal is to improve the organisational structures in existing areas and to ensure a clear allocation of responsibilities and tasks in the field of radiation protection and radioactive waste disposal.

In future, the federal task of regulation and licensing will be bundled in one authority, the BfE. For the operative tasks of searching for a site, the construction and operation of repositories as well as the Asse II mine, a federally owned company will be formed. The BfS focusses on the federal tasks of radiation protection, for example in the field of defence against nuclear hazards, medical research, mobile communication, UV protection or the measuring networks for environmental radioactivity.