(December 19, 1991) The struggle between environmentalists and the German government over the final repository for nuclear waste in Morsleben (former GDR) has ended with a victory for environmentalists.
(364.3579) WISE Amsterdam - Morsleben, which has three times the capacity (that means 15 million cubic meters) of the planned final repository "Schacht Konrad" in Lower Saxony, has been used as a final repository for low- and medium-level radioactive waste in the former GDR since 1978. In 1986, officials under the former East German regime, decided to give the facility a permanent operational permit, even though operators could only guarantee safety for a maximum of 50 years.
Strange things then happened during reunification. Morsleben's owner at the time reunification talks were going on was the previously state-owned VEB Kombinat Kernkraftwerke, which had by then already been privatized and renamed Energiewerke Nord. Energiewerke Nord suddenly decided to give Morsleben away to the Staatliche Amt für Atomsicherheit und Strahlenschutz (SAAS, GDR's Office for Nuclear Safety and Security). This was the day before reunification took place, thus SAAS was a part of the then still-existing GDR government. The next day, how-ever, SAAS became part of the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS), West Germany's equivalent to the SAAS. Along with SAAS went Morsleben, which then became the only final repository for nuclear waste in the whole of the now-united Germany.
The West German government had a special clause added to Germany's atomic law allowing it to continue the operation of nuclear installations once owned by East Germany for 10 more years -- without the necessity of a new authorization procedure. So it proceeded on the assumption that it could just take over and continue the dumping of even more waste. Luckily somebody, namely the lawyer Claudia Fittkow, was following all this confusion and discovered that serious mistakes were made during all the changes in Morsleben's ownership.
In terms of the West German law, which was already valid in the former GDR when Energiewerke Nord owned Morsleben, private companies are not allowed to run final repositories. Fittkow understood this to mean that Morsleben's operational permit had automatically expired during the time Morsleben was owned by Energiewerke Nord. Fittkow, working with the West German anti-nuclear group Bundesverband Bürgerinitiativen Umweltschutz (BBU), went to court over this in February 1991. The judge in the case agreed that the permit had expired and ordered Morsleben shut down until a final decision on the operating permit was made. Only supervision of the waste already deposited was to be continued. No further dumping was permitted.
The German government, namely the German Environmental Minister Töpfer and his department, ignored the ruling and continued to store waste in the above ground storage area. They justified this by saying that the shutdown was only valid for the underground area.
The final decision on Morsleben's permit was handed down on 27 November. Both sides, the German government and Fittkow, presented their various experts, and again the court agreed with Fittkow, saying that Morsleben had to be shut down because the German government, as owner, had no operation permit. Töpfer himself decided to stop dumping waste at Morsleben after reading what was supposed to have been one of the pro-Morsleben reports from the so-called German Reactor Safety Commission (RSK). Even RSK was had to admit that there were too many questions concerning safety that could not be answered.
Finally, one more thing is remarkable, and that is the way that BfS argued and the arguments it used. It tried to influence the court decision by threatening that if Morsleben were to be shut down, at lest three new interim repositories would have to be set up in the former GDR to handle the waste problem. BfS also explained to the judge why it still held the view that operation of Morsleben was un-objectionable: "Because we have this waste problem, the BfS has no other choice than to take the view that the final repository in Morsleben can be run in complete safety."
Sources:
- Tageszeitung (FRG), 26 Feb. 1991, 9 Sept. 1991; 28 Nov. 1991
- Natur und Umwelt (FRG), June 1991
- anti atom aktuell (FRG), Nov. 1991.
Contact: BI Morsleben, c/o David Janzen, Birkenweg 3, 3330 Helmstedt, FRG; tel: +49-5351-4872.