“Since we took over the facility we can rule out a risk for the Asse staff”

What has the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) achieved today with respect to the safe decommissioning of the Asse repository? That was the question the BfS gave answers to at its public briefing which took place last Thursday in Wolfenbüttel. Around 70 citizens came to the Lindenhalle to catch up on the Asse issue.

Head of department Dr. Michael Siemann provides information about the status of the emergency planning and the trial phase (fact finding) relating to Asse

In his introduction, the head of the BfS department Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, Dr. Michael Siemann, went into the details of the measures in the field of radiation protection initiated by the BfS since January 2009. At that time, the BfS took over the facility from the former operator, Helmholtz Zentrum München. Siemann introduced at first the measures of operational radiation protection and environmental monitoring and explained the results. In view of the discussion about the enhanced occurrence of certain cancers in the Asse joint community, he finally put straight: “Since 2009, since we have been operating the Asse mine, we can rule out a risk for the staff and the population on the grounds of our comprehensive monitoring measurements underground and above ground."

Safety of the Asse II mine will not end in 2020

Following a first round of discussions the head of section Asse Operation, Mathias Ranft, and the head of section Asse Decommissioning, Dirk Laske, illustrated the current status of emergency planning and of the three-year-lasting trial phase. In his lecture and in the subsequent discussion Ranft revealed that the emergency measures were the prerequisite for being able to retrieve the waste and to safely decommission the Asse mine. “The emergency planning does not jeopardise the intended retrieval of the waste – on the contrary: Actually, it enables the retrieval of the waste,” Ranft explained.

Regarding the mine’s stability being discussed time and again Ranft emphasised: “Not the safety of the mine does end in 2020 but the current forecasting horizon. It is possible to carry out works beyond that period if the necessary safety can be achieved.”

In his lecture Laske explained the current status of preparations and the safety concept for drilling into the two selected emplacement chambers 7 and 12 on the 750-m level. By the planned safety measures it is guaranteed that no radioactive substances will be discharged from the work area into the mine when the chamber is drilled into. At the same time he explained what – also legal – prerequisites needed to be fulfilled prior to drilling into the first emplacement chamber.

Subsequent to the lecture the participants took the opportunity to pose questions to the speakers and to the Chief Technology Officer of Asse-GmbH, Jens Köhler.

New model of 750-m-level presented

At the end of the presentation, the citizens had the opportunity to get a first view of the new model of the 750-m level. It will be displayed from January 2011 at the Asse information centre. The model depicts the progress of works in the scope of the trial phase (fact finding).