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The final storage of Germany’s nuclear waste is being delayed for decades. This is now costing us dearly. The editorial.
Nuclear power was supposed to be a technology of the century. Electricity would be so cheap that there would no longer be a need for electricity meters. Gigantic amounts of energy from little raw material. Driving a new era of economic abundance.
Nuclear power was widely introduced in this country in the 1970s. Now it is becoming clear that it is a “technology of the century” in a completely different sense than was hoped at the time. It could take a full 100 years in this country before a final storage site for radioactive waste is even found. According to a report by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), this will not happen until 2074 – in the best case scenario. This means a new heavy burden on the already botched disposal of the legacy of the nuclear age in this country.
Nuclear fans from the CDU/CSU and SPD brought about the nuclear disaster – the energy mix was once 60 percent nuclear
The origin of the problem lies in the fact that the new energy technologies, which at their peak provided a third of the electricity consumed in Germany, were established 60 years ago without the final storage problem having been solved in the slightest. It would have been impossible to be more negligent than the nuclear fans of the CDU/CSU and SPD-led federal governments of the time. This is still taking its toll today.
They chose the old, holey Asse salt mine near Wolfenbüttel to store low and medium-level radioactive waste. That ended in a fiasco. The nuclear storage facility there, which was praised as a model for disposal, is in danger of sinking. The renovation, if at all possible, will cost taxpayers several billion.
Nuclear waste – the radiant danger © IMAGO/IlluPics
Even more serious was the pre-determination of the Gorleben salt dome in Wendland near the inner-German border for the very hot waste, although there were great doubts about its suitability. The federal government, which wanted to blindly push through this solution, spent two billion euros on it, supposedly on an “exploratory mine”, but in fact on a final storage facility. In doing so, it created one of the greatest social conflicts that the old Federal Republic experienced.
The new search for a final storage site began after the Fukushima disaster – and continues to this day
The fatal consequence: Half a century was wasted on pseudo-politics that only pretended to “dispose of” nuclear waste so that the nuclear power plants could continue to operate. Only the decision to phase out nuclear power, made in 2011 after the Fukushima disaster, laid the foundation for a new search for a final storage facility based on scientific criteria.
The Bundestag then passed it in 2017 with a large majority across party lines, and it has been running ever since. At the time, it was calculated that a final storage site could be found by 2031. But now comes the shock. According to the BASE report, it will probably take more than four decades longer because the old calculations had apparently left out important procedural steps. We will probably have to accept this as the bitter truth, even if it is of course absurd. Because it means that the Bundestag resolution of 2017 was passed in ignorance of the actual situation.
Interim storage permits expire well before 2074 – taxpayers have to pay for the waste
The delay that is now looming is disrupting more than just the schedule – it is also about safety and money. A solution must be found for the continued storage of the hot radioactive waste that is currently parked in halls in Gorleben and at the old nuclear power plant sites. The Castor interim storage facilities there have only been approved for 40 years, and the approvals expire well before 2074. Retrofitting may be required here, for example due to dangerous situations such as the threat of war or terrorism.
But it is also clear that the search for a final repository, which has been extended by decades, requires significantly more financial resources. So far, the process has been financed from a state fund called “Kenfo”, into which the electricity companies paid around 24 billion euros in 2017. The sum was calculated at the time for the period up to 2031 and the subsequent construction of the final repository. It is now unlikely to be sufficient. The nuclear power plant operators are in the clear. Those who will have to pay the price are the future taxpayers.
Citizens must not be bypassed – but will a nuclear waste repository be sufficient in the next century?
The question now is: Can the Federal Republic really afford to wait until the final storage facility is fully completed in the next century? That is how long it would actually take, starting in 2074, for the storage facility to be built and all the Castor containers to be housed. The Federal Government should decide to put the entire process to the test and compare it with the approach of other countries that are further along in the search for a final storage facility – such as Switzerland.
However, any acceleration steps that may then be taken must not under any circumstances limit the participation of the citizens affected. The attempt by previous federal governments and their authorities to mislead them is what caused the whole mess. That must not happen again.
