Environmental associations file suit against Schacht Konrad

The legal dispute over the planned final repository for medium and low-level radioactive waste Schacht Konrad near Salzgitter continues. After Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) refused to revoke the permit for the repository in September of this year at the request of BUND and NABU, the two environmental associations are now taking legal action against the decision.

"With our application, based on scientific and legal expertise, we have proven that Schacht Konrad does not meet the requirements for a repository for radioactive waste," said Susanne Gerstner, Chairwoman of BUND Lower Saxony, explaining the reasons for the lawsuit. Petra Wassmann from NABU added that the planning approval decision was based on completely inadequate data at the time. There was no long-term safety in the Konrad mine. In addition, new facts have subsequently arisen that justify a revocation.

State government against the Konrad mine

Meyer had legally justified the applications by BUND and NABU to revoke the approval of the repository. His ministry had examined in detail, both legally and in terms of content, whether there were grounds for revoking or withdrawing the permit for Schacht Konrad 22 years after it was granted. The environmental associations could now appeal against this review of an administrative procedure, the Ministry of the Environment said in September. "This does not change my critical stance and that of the red-green state government on a final repository at Schacht Konrad without a nationwide site comparison and the lack of retrievability," added Meyer.

Frank Klingebiel, Mayor of Salzgitter, said on behalf of the alliance against Schacht Konrad, which is supported by IG Metall Salzgitter-Peine, Landvolk Braunschweiger Land, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Schacht Konrad and the City of Salzgitter: "We would have liked the Minister to have made a bolder decision. It is unacceptable that a dangerous, old project is being held on to with open eyes, just so that the permanent storage of the radioactive waste is not left completely bare."

The disused iron ore mine in Salzgitter has been converted into a "repository for radioactive waste with negligible heat generation" since 2007, explains the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment. The 2002 planning approval decision limits storage to a maximum of 303,000 m³ of low- and medium-level radioactive waste. The repository is due to be completed in 2029. It is primarily intended for waste from nuclear power plants and nuclear industry operations.

Demands on the federal government

At the turn of 2015/2016, 19 local authorities in the affected region had already called for the Konrad mine project to be reassessed. Among other things, they demanded that the federal government comprehensively reassess the project according to the current state of science and technology, including the safety calculations and analyses that are over 25 years old. In addition, the plans do not take into account the retrieval of the stored nuclear waste.

Currently, low to medium-level radioactive waste is stored in 16 interim storage facilities across Germany. These will later be stored in the Konrad mine. In addition, there are around 19,000 barrels of highly radioactive waste for which a final storage site is still being sought. It was recently unclear when the search will be completed.

(anw)