“Rapidly injecting life into the process”

Source: BASE/ BKW / B. Lammel

The search for a disposal site for high-level radioactive waste thrives if people share different and even contradictory ideas. “We’re all venturing into uncharted territory in the site selection procedure. We know the goal and the Site Selection Act has laid down the principles needed for the correct course. It’s now the responsibility of all those involved – whether the supervisory body, operators, the Civil Society Board, state authorities, academics or citizens – to rapidly inject life into the process based on the ‘blank map’,” said the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, during her opening speech at the first status conference on disposal.

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BfE) had invited specialists and those involved in the site selection procedure to a conference for one-and-a-half days and also opened it to interested members of the general public. The goal was to share ideas on the current state of the search for a disposal site and its challenges from the different perspectives of the various parties. The discussions focused on matters related to public participation, the need for further regulations in the site selection procedure and the issue of how those involved can establish an auto-adaptive procedure.

“After about two years, the time has come to assess where we are and ask what has been successful and what still needs to happen,” said Wolfram König, President of the BfE. “Asking questions about your own work in order to learn is also a task that the Site Selection Act has assigned to those involved. The status conference, which is due to be held every year, provides a building block for this.”

About 200 representatives from ministries, public bodies, companies, the National Civil Society Board, universities, citizens’ initiatives and interested members of the general public accepted the invitation to go to Berlin. The discussions underlined that they are necessary and helpful to develop a procedure that is as robust as possible. “Finding a disposal site by 2031 is an extremely tough demand. We must face this challenge. After all, we know that the favourable political and economic conditions for a successful search are not set in stone,” König added.

The goal of the annual status conference is to determine development and improvement opportunities in the procedure. It is a public event. BfE recorded the lectures and discussions in the plenary sessions. The video and the slides of the individual speakers are being published on the BfE’s home page.