HANNOVER (dpa-AFX) - In view of the unresolved issue of final nuclear storage in Germany, anti-nuclear organizations have warned of massive safety deficiencies in the existing interim storage facilities. "We don't have a single interim storage facility that is sufficiently safe. That is already the state of affairs," said Helge Bauer from the organization "ausgestrahlt" in Hanover.

The German government has not yet presented a sensible concept on how it intends to deal with the fact that nuclear waste will have to remain in interim storage facilities for much longer than once hoped. There is also still a lack of suitable protection concepts against terrorist attacks or sabotage.

Demand: Government must present new concept for interim storage facilities

The government must therefore urgently present a concept for the interim storage of nuclear waste in which the minimization of dangers to the population has the highest priority, Bauer demanded. Within the next two decades, many interim storage facilities would lose their licenses. "The Castors have also only been approved for 40 years," Bauer explained. So the first ones in Gorleben in 2032 would lose their TÜV stamp, so to speak.

The search for a suitable site for a final repository for highly radioactive waste is currently underway in Germany. The Federal Ministry for the Environment assumes that a suitable repository will be found by 2050, around 20 years later than originally planned. It remains to be seen when nuclear waste can actually be stored. The final storage of low and medium-level radioactive waste is also an ongoing issue. The planned Konrad shaft near Salzgitter, a former iron ore mine, is currently being prepared and is scheduled to go into operation in 2027 at the earliest. Critics criticize the lack of safety.

The search for a final repository is about finding a place deep underground for the permanent storage of 27,000 cubic meters of highly radioactive waste from more than 60 years of nuclear power in Germany. The aim is to find a location that is safe for a million years, as the waste radiates for hundreds of thousands of years. It is currently stored in 16 above-ground interim storage facilities in various federal states.

Is acceptance of the repository search process in danger of failing again?

Bauer warned that the current repository search procedure is in danger of failing, as was once the case at the Gorleben site - due to a lack of acceptance, a lack of transparency and shortened public participation: "We will then very quickly reach a point where people's trust in this procedure has diminished over the years that this site search has been going on." Many of those who were heavily involved at the beginning have already withdrawn from the process because they were unable to assert themselves against the state authorities or because there was no room for real participation.

To draw attention to the problems with German nuclear waste, several anti-nuclear organizations published a 468-page overview of nuclear waste storage in Germany. It lists over 216 nuclear facilities at 71 locations. Accordingly, 84 are currently in operation, 56 plants have been decommissioned or are being dismantled./agy/DP/mis