If nuclear waste is going to be stored in a salt dome in a salt dome, it will not only have consequences for the substrate. Above ground, an area of 2.5 square kilometers is then required. The cabinet makes this estimate in the route map of the Radioactive Waste Road Card. The salt umbrellas are all under or near Schoonloo, Anloo/Gasteren, Hooghalen and Gasselte/Drouwen.
The cabinet wants to make a decision much earlier about where we definitively leave our nuclear waste. Not only in 2100 but in the coming years it must become clear where the final storage of radioactive waste should be. 75 years earlier. Because if the Borssele nuclear power plant remains open for longer and nuclear power stations are added, there is more radioactive waste, the government argues. Every country that causes nuclear waste must also look for a final solution itself, according to the rules of the European Union.
The Radioactive Waste RadioActive waste route map states that the 2.5 square kilometers depends on how many inputs the underground storage mine must have for the construction of the underground storage. And that in turn depends on whether you separate or store it high, middle and low-radioactive waste. Finally, the way of supply from the nuclear waste to the mine (by road, water or rail) also determines the size of the location.
Chairman Carlo Hadderingh of Local Interest Gasselte-Kostvlies is shocked. “2.5 square kilometers? Bizarre! I didn’t know what I heard. Then you can wipe Gasselte and Drouwen completely bare. That is of course not possible. And in between is Sodrura 2000 area Drouwenerzand, we are here in the middle of Geopark the Hondsrug. We are not going to do this here.”
Village chairman Dennis Bardie van Schoonloo agrees with him. “It’s about the image. That you are going to sacrifice a village or a beautiful piece of nature or space for the storage of nuclear waste.”
“Space is not only required above ground, but also a footprint has a footprint underground. For illustration, the intended final storage in France is 15 square kilometers underground. For the Netherlands it would be estimated to go 1.4 square kilometers” is in the route map.