“Back to the future”

Germany’s radioactive waste will probably stay in castor casks above ground near (former) nuclear power stations for a century, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. A final underground repository is unlikely to be filled before the year 2117, Wetzel says. The parliamentary commission for finding a final repository will present its results to the environment minister today. The search procedure, which will focus on possible storage sites in rock salt, clay rock and crystalline granite, will look at Germany as a “white map”, without any pre-conceived favourites. It will therefore also include the salt mine at Gorleben, where explorations had already begun but were terminated amid large protests from citizens. The nuclear waste is to be stored for millions of years in the final repository but shall be retrievable for the first 500 years, the commission suggests. This is in case a treatment is found to reduce radioactivity earlier (transmutation), the article says.

Read a CLEW factsheet about storing radioactive waste in Germany.