Switzerland: maximum security in the depot near the border

According to Swiss experts, the planned location for the Swiss nuclear waste depot near the border with Baden-Württemberg is the safest place for radioactive waste. The Nördlich Lägern region, not far from the German municipality of Hohentengen, is the best choice among the three sites examined for purely geological reasons, Matthias Braun, head of the National Cooperative for Radioactive Waste Disposal (Nagra), told Monday. Bern. “It’s a clear decision. Geology has spoken.”

The necessary rock layer of Opalinus Clay is deeper below the earth’s surface, the layer is thicker, and the possible area for planned storage is larger. At Nördlich Lägern traces of the oldest water have been found in the rock layer: 175 million years old. This gives him the confidence to make long-term predictions, Braun said. “The rock is very dense, it binds radioactive materials like a magnet and, if it breaks, it heals itself.”

The fuel element packing station will be built in the current interim depot in Würenlingen, not far from Waldshut-Tiengen in Germany, as there are already buildings there. They just need to be expanded. The fuel rods, 3.5 to 4.5 meters long, weigh about two kilograms and have a diameter of a good centimeter, must be packed there. 100 to nearly 300 fuel rods are grouped with spacers to form one fuel element each.

The Federal Office of Energy and the Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) want to examine Nagra’s proposals in the approval process. In addition to four Swiss professors, four German professors are also represented in the ENSI expert group for deep geological repositories. Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, industry and research will be buried hundreds of meters deep in the repository. The Federal Office stressed that the approval has not yet been decided. In the most favorable case, construction could begin in 2031 and storage in 2050.

The German communities reacted to the decisions with skepticism. They want to carefully check whether Nagra’s justifications are plausible, especially since the Nördlich Lägern site was postponed as a second choice in 2015. According to Braun, uncertainty factors were decisive at the time because the Opalinus Clay layer was so deep there. But further tests would have taught them better: “It turned out that the strength of the rock is about double that estimated in the conservative scenario of the time,” he said.

The Swiss answer the question of whether German radioactive waste cannot be disposed of even in the depot so close to the German border with a clear no. “It is a recognized principle that each country must dispose of its own waste,” said Roman Mayer, deputy director of the Federal Office of Energy. A spokesperson for the German Federal Environment Ministry also said on Monday that Germany will dispose of its highly radioactive nuclear waste in its own depot. “Germany has decided to build its own repository for its nuclear waste and not together with its European partners. We are responsible for our garbage “, clarified the spokesperson.

Surrounding communities are expected to receive compensatory payments, confirmed Monika Stauffer, head of the radioactive waste section at the Federal Office of Energy. “The compensation negotiations will be challenging,” she said. The money should be used for regional development. Whoever gets how much money has to be negotiated. In a scenario of non-binding costs, 800 million francs (822 million euros) were foreseen. The German Environment Ministry spokesman also confirmed on Monday that compensation payments are under discussion, including for heavily burdened German communities.

As a general framework for the repository, Ensi has established that the radiation cannot exceed 0.1 millisieverts per year, said Felix Altorfer, head of the waste management oversight area. According to the data available so far, Ensi only expects a maximum of 0.001 millisieverts of radiation for the predicted field. In the German Radiation Protection Act, the limit value for the effective dose to protect people is set at 1 millisievert per year.

Swiss nuclear power plant operators estimated the cost of disposing of radioactive waste at 18.2 billion francs last year. You have already paid into a fund to cover the costs.

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