- Environment Minister calls for speed in nuclear end-use search
Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Christian Meyer views the potentially much longer search for a final repository for nuclear waste in Germany with concern. The current interim storage facilities are unlikely to become permanent, the Green politician warned. Pushing back the search for a final repository by several more decades would mean extending many interim storage facilities in Lower Saxony, which raises significant safety concerns about further above-ground storage.
"I therefore call on the federal government to finally speed up the search for a final repository and not pass the buck to future generations," said Meyer. "This generation produced the nuclear waste without having a final repository. Therefore, we also bear the responsibility and are duty-bound not to push it back by decades, difficult as the issue may be."
The search for a final repository could take until at least 2074
According to a study by the Freiburg-based Öko-Institut, the search for a final repository for highly radioactive waste could take more than 40 years longer than originally planned. Under ideal conditions, a site decision could not be expected before 2074. The Deutschlandfunk was the first to report on the paper commissioned by the Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Disposal (BASE).
"Given the prolonged search for a final nuclear waste repository in Germany, as suggested by the Öko-Institut's study, it could potentially lead to extended use of interim storage facilities in countries like Germany, such as Lower Saxony, raising serious safety concerns."
"Despite Germany's ongoing struggle with finding a permanent solution for nuclear waste disposal, with estimates suggesting a final repository might not be decided upon until 2074, it's crucial for our generation to take responsibility and not prolong the issue for future generations, as we were the initial producers of the nuclear waste."
