Storage of nuclear waste is and remains a taboo in Groningen soil, says deputy Susan Top. “As far as we are concerned, there can be no question of that: I cannot say it more clearly.”
The provincial administrator responded to questions from States member Dries Zwart of the Party for the North on Wednesday. He is concerned about the research that the cabinet wants to conduct in the coming years into the ‘final’ storage of nuclear waste in the deep soil. This should clear the way to keep the nuclear power plant in Borssele open longer.
Cabinet plans are causing unrest in the East Groningen salt extraction area
According to PvhN party leader Zwart, the Hague plans have caused great unrest in the salt extraction area between Veendam, Winschoten and Pekela. Residents there are already complaining about damage to their homes due to salt extraction and fear that they will soon be stuck with underground nuclear storage if production stops in the future. This is already happening just across the border in the German Emsland.
Why did the provincial government allow the deadline to protest against this to pass this week? That is why Zwart wonders with the inhabitants of the salt extraction area. Until 11 June, it was possible to respond to the plans laid down by the government in a draft memorandum on the amendment of the Nuclear Energy Act.
‘We are in no way open to the storage of nuclear waste in our province’
,,Apparently we have not felt addressed”, said the newly appointed Top about the assessment made by the previous Board of the Provincial Executive. A decision that she can wholeheartedly support: “We assume that it is well known that we are in no way open to the storage of nuclear waste in our province.”
The province of Groningen has held this position since the 1970s, when it was first suggested to store nuclear waste in salt domes in the soil of East Groningen. ,,It is in all relevant policy documents”, Top told Zwart on Wednesday. The cabinet is also aware of this and does not specifically refer to the Groningen salt domes in the new memorandum.
‘Do not want to suggest that this is even feasible’
In fact, says the new deputy: a participation response could actually have the opposite effect. “That would perhaps rather suggest that storage in our soil is possible at all. We don’t think that’s possible in any way and should it arise in the future we will do everything we can to prevent it.”
Proponents of nuclear energy see ‘definitive’ storage in the deep (Groninger) soil as a solution for the waste that is released during the production of nuclear energy. It will remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years.
Proponents and opponents of nuclear energy cross swords over storage
Ronald Kaatee of the Party for Economic Affairs (not elected in the States) recently argued for this in an opinion piece in Newspaper of the North . According to him, ‘geological’ disposal in the deep soil can open up a new future for the production of nuclear energy.
The Groningen publicist Herman Damveld argues in a reaction piece in this newspaper that this technology is still unproven, according to research by TNO, among others.