Federal Ministry for the Environment - Nuclear waste storage facility in Beverungen off the table
The planned storage facility for nuclear waste in Beverungen is not to be built. This was announced by Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday. The planned nuclear storage facility in the border triangle of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse had caused controversy for years.
The plan was to set up the so-called "Logistics Center Konrad" (ZBL Lok) in Beverungen in the Höxter district on the site of the former Würgassen nuclear power plant. Low to intermediate-level nuclear waste from Germany was to be collected and pre-sorted there from 2027 before being transported to the Schacht Konrad repository in Salzgitter, over 100 kilometers away. Instead, the nuclear waste is now to be delivered directly to Salzgitter. The BGZ Bundesgesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung has already prepared plans for this.
According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the project is unlikely to be implemented in time and therefore not economically viable due to too many legal and planning risks. There is also not enough time to find another location. The ministry suspects that the project would have led to a bad investment of around two billion euros.
The decision now provides clarity for all parties involved, said Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens). "However, the necessary end to the logistics center also means that the Konrad repository will now be in operation for longer." In principle, a logistics center would have been sensible and desirable, according to the Ministry of the Environment. So far, around 60 million euros have been invested in the project.
The citizens' initiative Atomfreies 3-Ländereck welcomed the decision and expressed surprise. Hopes of a move away from the site had recently faded, said former chairman Dirk Wilhelm.
"This is a good day in Germany," said Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) in the Lower Saxony state parliament on Tuesday. He also welcomed the fact that there would be no new search for a site. The decision is also a lesson for democracy and shows that people are capable of learning. It was only on Tuesday morning that the Ministry of Health of Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) in North Rhine-Westphalia had once again positioned itself against the planned storage facility.
Other politicians such as Jürgen Trittin (Greens), member of the Bundestag in Göttingen and former Federal Environment Minister, and Uwe Schünemann, member of the state parliament for the CDU parliamentary group in Lower Saxony, also welcomed the decision. The Chairman of the Environment Committee in the Bundestag, Harald Ebner (Greens), said that the decision showed once again that the call for nuclear power is only loud when it is not about the waste. "When it comes to the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste, the principle of 'just not in my house' always applies."
The construction and necessity of the ZBL Lok has been the subject of dispute for years. The states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia as well as politicians and local people are against the project planned by BGZ Bundesgesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung. Among other things, they criticize the lack of flood protection and inadequate rail links to the site on the Weser. According to a report commissioned by the two federal states, the nuclear waste storage facility is also not necessary. The Federal Audit Office also criticized the project.
However, the Federal Waste Disposal Commission, which advises the Federal Ministry for the Environment, considers the storage facility to be necessary. The BGZ has repeatedly emphasized that the storage facility would save a lot of time. The German nuclear waste would be completely stored in the Konrad mine ten years earlier than without the storage facility.
ESK report
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Source: www.stern.de
