BEVERUNGEN/SALZGITTER (dpa-AFX) – Shorter transport routes, interim storage facilities that are emptied more quickly, slightly increased radiation exposure on site – the planned supply storage facility in the border triangle of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse would have advantages and disadvantages for nuclear waste disposal in the Konrad repository in Salzgitter. This is the result of a study by TÜV Nord commissioned by the states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
The state governments particularly emphasized one finding of the investigation: the disposal of low-level and medium-level radioactive waste would also be possible without the controversial storage facility. Specifically, the study states that the investigation has shown “that with suitable advance planning of the container call-off, the Konrad repository can be loaded with and without a supply store (…).”
According to the Federal Agency for Interim Storage (BGZ), which is responsible for planning, this was not even an issue: A BGZ spokesman said that the logistics center was never said to be indispensable for the operation of the Konrad repository. “But for a “speedy” storage operation.” According to the study, transport distances and times would be reduced with a staging area, and interim storage areas would be empty more quickly.
The plan is to collect low- and medium-level radioactive waste from the interim storage facilities in the logistics center “Konrad” at the former nuclear power plant in Würgassen (Höxter district) on the Weser and then bundle it and deliver it to Salzgitter, around 120 kilometers away. There, a former iron ore mine is being converted into a repository that is scheduled to go into operation in 2027. Highly radioactive fuel elements are not stored there – for which there is still no repository in Germany – but, according to the BGZ, less contaminated items from decommissioned nuclear power plants: work clothes, cleaning rags, disused plant parts, filters or cables. There is also waste from research and medicine.
According to the study, with such a storage facility, it would not take that long for all the waste to be disposed of from the interim storage facilities. This means that the low- and medium-level radioactive waste from over 35 locations with interim storage facilities could be delivered to the Konrad repository around ten years earlier, said the BGZ spokesman.
On the other hand, according to the study, staff and the population in the area would be exposed to more radiation – but the value would therefore be well below the limit value for annual exposure.
According to the study, the total duration of emplacement in the Konrad repository would be shorter with such a storage facility – provided that two-shift operation and not one-shift operation were used. Wibke Brems, deputy leader of the Greens in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, was critical of the fact that “depending on the specific implementation, the total duration of the storage of the nuclear waste would not even be reduced, so far the main argument for such a storage facility”.
The planned camp is viewed with skepticism in the region, but a local citizens’ initiative is opposed. NRW and Lower Saxony see significant organizational questions unanswered and “great potential for optimization”, it said on Wednesday. These questions must now be clarified, the potential must be exploited, demanded NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) in the direction of the federal government. Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) said: “The federal government now has an obligation and we are pleased that we are entering into a transparent discourse.”
In addition, the NRW Ministry of Health criticized on Wednesday that the decision for the camp was “unexpected for the public, the authorities and the political decision-makers on site and in neighboring Lower Saxony”. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the BGZ have not adequately justified the choice of location or the necessity of the project.
A spokesman for the BGZ replied: “After extensive site selection, the planned area on the site of the former nuclear power plant in Würgassen proved to be the most suitable location for this.” The transport logistics simplified by the warehouse and the significant acceleration of disposal is a “safety gain for all of us”. The study will now be examined. Irrespective of this, one continues to assume that a logistics center is indispensable for rapid emplacement operations in the Konrad repository./gba/DP/ngu