The BfS makes the following comments on some issues of the Asse-2 Monitoring Group’s press release "Asse-2 Monitoring Group stops talks with the BfS":

The statements of the Asse-2 Monitoring Group’s press information are incorrect in some points:

• It is wrong to say that the BfS has not commissioned a concept study on retrieval. A corresponding study has been conducted since April. Asse-2 monitoring boards have even been involved in the performance specification for the order.
• The statement that the Monitoring Group had been “surprised” by the BfS news on works on the 750-m level is not true, either. The meeting had even been summoned for this particular purpose and in co-ordination with the Monitoring Group, following an intensive exchange of expertise on this topic with the monitoring bodies in the preceding months. Issues such as the drainage systems were discussed and some were taken up in the BfS plans.

In detail:

1. The planning of retrieval has been going on for several months. The BfS has commissioned the DMT GmbH & Co KG with planning the "Specification of the Feasibility Study on the Optimum Approach in Retrieving the LAW packages". The DMT has been developing the concept since the end of April 2013 and plans to present the results still in 2013. The BfS has involved Asse monitoring boards in the performance specification of the order.
2. The conception of creating stability by backfilling cavities where no radioactive wastes have been stored, is a central prerequisite for retrieval (and does not hamper it).
3. For safety reasons, these works need to be carried out to protect the population and the staff. They are to stabilise the entire mine and reduce the probability of an uncontrollable inflow of water and its consequences.
4. Also the supervisory authorities demand that the BfS implement these works. Furthermore, the BfS has reported to its technical and legal supervisory board, the Federal Environment Ministry, about the status of planning and has requested the BMU to give its approval to the planned works. In accordance with the Federal Environment Ministry, works on the 750-m level can start shortly.
5. The planned precautionary measures in case of an uncontrollable inflow of water have been discussed publicly since 2010. The BfS has continuously informed the Asse II Monitoring Group about these plans, has laid itself open to the Group’s criticism and has incorporated suggestions in the concept of precautionary measures. The BfS had initially postponed the works in 2013 in order to discuss the approach again with the monitoring boards of the Asse mine, who had expressed their criticism about part of the planned works. Technical talks with the bodies involved about the planned works have therefore been enhanced from April 2013. In this process, particularly suggestions by the Working Group Comparison of Options/Retrieval were taken into account, e.g. drainages on the 750-m level.
6. Following the intensive exchange of expertise, the BfS has informed the Asse-2 Monitoring Group that it was going to launch the works shortly. This expert talk had been especially co-ordinated with the Monitoring Group and took place on 7 August 2013. The BfS had organised this talk on short notice on 6 August and, upon request of a speaker of the Monitoring Group, organised for the evening of 7 August 2013. Following two hours of technical presentations and answering all technical questions by the BfS and Asse-GmbH, the Asse-2 Monitoring Group broke off the meeting without giving any technical or safety-related reasons against the planned works on the 750-m level to the BfS.
7. The planned precautionary measures will last until 2021, retrieval operations will be carried out in parallel. At first, limited areas in front of chambers 10 and 12 will be stabilised with salt concrete. These areas have been particularly strained over decades where the mine had been kept open. Part of them have already been blocked for operation for safety reasons. Emplacement chambers are not backfilled in this process.
8. The retrieval works are not impaired by the planned works on the 750-m level. Currently a concept on possible variants to access the emplacement chambers for the purpose of retrieving the waste are being developed with the objective to find different options for an optimal access to the waste stored in the emplacement chambers. This includes access variants via the 750-m level and via levels underneath the 750-m level. All variants require the prior stabilisation of the currently existing areas on the 750-m level and on the 725-m level. Should the option of retrieving the waste from the 750-m level work, this area would anyway have to be stabilised with concrete and be driven in a larger crosscut than the present one.