Residents' complaint - Court hears case on safety of nuclear waste storage facility
The safety of the interim nuclear waste storage facility in Gundremmingen, Swabia, has been under scrutiny in court since Thursday. Several residents living near the storage facility have filed a complaint with the Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) in Munich and are demanding that the Federal Republic revoke the 20-year-old license for the nuclear facility.
They argue, among other things, that the fuel element storage facility is not sufficiently protected against the crash of a large passenger aircraft such as the Airbus A380. It was initially unclear when the VGH would announce a decision in the proceedings.
The plaintiffs are hoping for success because of a ten-year-old ruling from northern Germany. In June 2013, the Higher Administrative Court in Schleswig overturned the approval of the interim storage facility in Brunsbüttel; the Federal Administrative Court later confirmed the decision. The judges had assumed that the Brunsbüttel interim storage facility had not been sufficiently tested against terrorist attacks such as the crash of an Airbus A380 or an attack with armor-piercing weapons.
The interim storage facilities were planned and built at the sites of German nuclear power plants in the early 2000s. The idea was that nuclear waste would be stored at the decentralized sites until a final storage facility was available in Germany.
The interim storage facility in Gundremmingen (Günzburg district) is currently licensed until 2046 for the storage of Castor casks containing the fuel elements. With a total of three nuclear reactors, Gundremmingen was one of the largest nuclear power plants in Germany.
Information from the Federal Office on the Gundremmingen interim storage facility Overview of German interim storage facilities Information on the Brunsbüttel interim storage facility
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- The residents' complaint against the nuclear waste storage facility in Gundremmingen cites the potential risk of a large aircraft like the Airbus A380 crashing into the facility as a major concern.
- The Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) in Munich is currently reviewing this case, following a similar ruling in 2013 by the Higher Administrative Court in Schleswig that revoked the approval of a nuclear waste storage facility in Brunsbüttel.
- The plaintiffs are hoping that the court will apply the same reasoning to the interim storage facility in Gundremmingen, arguing that it too is not adequately secured against such events.
- The Bavarian Administrative Court's decision could have significant implications for the operation of nuclear power plants in Germany, as many of them have interim storage facilities for nuclear waste.
- If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it could set a precedent that could force the German government to invest in more robust security measures for these facilities.
- The interim storage facility in Gundremmingen is currently licensed until 2046 and is one of the largest nuclear power plants in Germany, with a total of three reactors.
Source: www.stern.de
