BfS confronts citizens’ questions

BfS staff is available for interested citizens for questions and discussions, also during candle-lit demonstration. You will find staff of the Konrad and Asse operator as contact persons at the central places of the candle-lit demonstration in the Asse information centre directly at the repository site and in front of the Konrad mine as well as in the Konrad information centre in Salzgitter-Lebenstedt.

There you can get information about what technical and legal issues mark the differences in safety of Konrad which will be a planned repository for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste, compared with Asse.

A brief comparison: Konrad Does Not Equal Asse

The topic of disposal causes a great stir. Many people consider the Asse mine as an example that a safe disposal of radioactive waste is not possible. With the Konrad mine, a site for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste has been licensed which is in compliance with all safety requirements provided by the state of the art of science and technology.

The total volume of open drifts and chambers in the Asse mine is significantly larger than in the Konrad mine. All cavities where waste will be emplaced are still to be constructed and will be sealed after the waste has been emplaced. The waste in the Asse was emplaced in large chambers which had been driven for salt production and which were not backfilled at all or only loosely with salt grit after the waste packages had been disposed of. Due to the salt that was mined over decades the Asse has been perforated. Therefore, the stability is at risk and daily approximately 12,000 litres of saline solution flow into the repository via the adjoining rock layers.

The planned emplacement areas of Konrad, on the other hand, are located more than 800 m deep in a stable geological formation. The layer of various clay and marl rocks which is up to 400 metres thick seals the Konrad ore deposit against influent waters.

In a nuclear law procedure with comprehensive participation of the public, the Konrad mine was determined to become a repository. After one had dealt with approximately 290,000 objectors - among them citizens, communities, and associations from all over Germany - and several claims, the plan-approval decision (licence) for Konrad was granted in 2002 and confirmed by the Higher Administrative Court in 2006. In 2007, more than 30 years after the first pre-investigations and five years after the licence had been granted, it was confirmed by highest judicial authority. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig rejected complaints against the non-admission of the revision to the decisions of the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court.

The Asse was selected and operated without comparable pre-investigations, solely according to a permit pursuant to Mining Law which did not provide for a participation of the public. Despite the problematic geological situation of the Asse, altogether 126,000 waste packages were disposed of, part of them in humid chambers. According to the current state of the art of science and technology, the Asse does not fulfil any of the fundamental selection criteria for a radioactive waste repository.