Results of the BfS workshop on Asse

Upon invitation of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), about 100 experts discussed a possible acceleration of the retrieval of radioactive waste from the Asse mine on 18 and 19 January 2012 in Braunschweig. The expert workshop has not provided findings that call the retrieval of the waste into question.

The BfS is legally obliged to safely close the Asse mine for the long term. According to the current state of knowledge, this can only be achieved when all waste will be retrieved. On both days of the non-public expert meeting, the issue was to analyse uncertainties relating to the retrieval of the Asse waste, to identify options to accelerate retrieval and to consequently implement the acceleration with all parties involved.

The Federal Environment Ministry as supervisory authority, the Lower Saxon Environment Ministry as licensing authority, the Asse-2 Accompanying Group as local representatives and other experts dealing with the Asse repository took part in the meeting.

Debates took place in four working groups with the following results, among others:

Working team 1: Geo-mechanical and hydro-geological state of the Asse II mine

• A spontaneous and complete collapse of the Asse can be ruled out.
• Because of possible inflow of saline solutions, investigations of the overburden need to pushed.
• The main point of inflow of the solution can shift in vertical direction, but a shift in horizontal direction is improbable.

Working team 2: Mining state of Asse II

• There have been no unexpected changes of the safety state since 2010.
• Step 1 of the fact-finding continues to be necessary.
• If central boundary conditions are complied with (such as shaft 5, infrastructure rooms, brine management), sufficient time will remain for retrieval.

Working team 3: Radiation protection and incident safety

• There must be no reduction as to the safety goals such as radiation protection and health and safety.
• Depth of analyses and double-assessments in the licensing procedures should and can be reduced.
• The management of proceedings should be optimised by intensive application advice (decision-making rounds).

Working team 4: Planning and licences

• In the further course of the licensing procedure, accelerations could be achieved by applying the technical rules and regulations in a more flexible manner, by which no major accelerations can be expected, though.
• There were different legal positions as to proceeding based on risk prevention law according to the Atomic Energy Act.
• A legal framework on the further proceeding could create margins for risk considerations and safety for acting persons.

Conclusion:

Absolute priority will be the long-term safe closure of the Asse mine. According to the current state of knowledge, this can only be achieved when all waste will be retrieved. However, the BfS will only be able to implement its order if all parties involved accept the acceleration options and work together for the safe decommissioning of the Asse mine.

Public presentation

The results of the workshop were presented to the public on 19 January 2012 in the Braunschweig city hall.