Nuclear Monitor #918
Jan van Evert, reporter Nuclear Monitor
The search for a final repository for highly radioactive materials in Germany may take decades longer than previously known. The Öko-Institut in the German city Freiburg draws this conclusion in a recent report, Deutschlandfunk reports. The report was commissioned by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE).
According to the Öko-Institut a site could be designated in fifty years at best. However, German law stipulates that a site should be designated in 2031, i.e. in seven years’ time.
The highly radioactive waste is currently stored in over a thousand Castor casks in interim storage facilities at various locations in Germany. The licences for the Ahaus and Gorleben sites already expire in 2034, for other storage facilities in the 2040s. Moreover, the casks are not designed for such a long period of use in interim storage facilities.
