Energy - Nuclear waste storage facility in Beverungen will not be built
The planned storage facility for nuclear waste in Beverungen, North Rhine-Westphalia, is not to be built. This was announced by the Federal Ministry for the Environment 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 district of Höxter 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.
According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the project is unlikely to be implemented on 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.
ESK report
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- Despite the controversy, the proposed nuclear waste storage facility in Lower Saxony, specifically in Beverungen near Höxter, will not be constructed due to economic and feasibility concerns raised by the Federal Ministry for the Environment in Berlin.
- The potential logistics center in Beverungen, known as "ZBL Lok," aimed to collect and pre-sort low to intermediate-level nuclear waste from Germany, but it has been deemed unlikely to be implemented on time and economically viable.
- As a result of the cancellation of the Beverungen project, the nuclear waste will now be directly delivered to the Schacht Konrad repository in Salzgitter, over 100 kilometers away, adding to the operation time of the Konrad repository.
- Steffi Lemke, the Federal Environment Minister (Greens), has stated that the decision provides clarity for all parties involved, acknowledging that while a logistics center would have been sensible, the current circumstances do not permit its implementation.
- The cancellation of the Beverungen project also means that the German government will likely incur around two billion euros in unnecessary costs, according to the Federal Ministry for the Environment.
- Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, two neighboring German states, had originally planned to collaborate on the nuclear waste storage facility in Beverungen, only to see this ambitious project ultimately fail due to feasibility challenges.
- Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment and North Rhine-Westphalia's Green Party have intensified calls for a new strategy to address nuclear waste management, urging the establishment of a national repository for nuclear waste.
Source: www.stern.de
