Retrieving the waste from Asse remains the goal
Evaluation workshop on 18/19 January is to accelerate fact-finding procedure
Date 2012.01.04
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) has been tasked with the safe closure of the Asse II mine since 2009. In January 2010, following an intensive process of consultation with the participation of the affected population, the BfS has classified the option of retrieving the waste to be the safest option for the long term. Whether this way is technically feasible and responsible from the safety point of view, is to be found out in a fact-finding process the first step of which will be the drilling into two chambers. The relevant prerequisites were created by a licence granted by the federal state of Lower Saxony in April 2011. Implementation requires that 32 safety requirements be met, the major part of which the BfS has meanwhile dealt with.
The bad state of the mine openings forces all parties involved to act quickly, though this must of course not be to the detriment of safety. On the occasion of a specialist workshop taking place on 18 and 19 January in Brunswick, the BfS wants to discuss technical challenges in order to accelerate the implementation of the fact-finding process. The BfS has invited to the workshop all authorities involved, the Asse-2 Accompanying Group and numerous experts dealing with the Asse mine.
The BfS had tasked its experts that are responsible for mining safety with conducting a critical evaluation of the mine’s stability under worst-case scenarios.
In decommissioning the mine, it is the aim of the BfS to realise the best possible security that can be achieved in these extremely difficult conditions. According to the present state of knowledge that can only be achieved by retrieving the radioactive waste from the Asse mine. The previous evaluation clearly shows, however: Time for realising the option of retrieval is pressing. Already at the beginning of December, the BfS already informed the Asse-2 Accompanying Group about this fact. The Asse-2 Accompanying Group comprises all interested groups in the region. It is headed by the district administrator of Wolfenbüttel, Jörg Röhmann.