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Castor search: Heilbronn and Hohenlohe excluded! Where now?
The BGE has stopped the search for a nuclear repository in the Heilbronn and Hohenlohe districts. The reasons are inadequate geological conditions.
Castor search: Heilbronn and Hohenlohe excluded! Where now?
The search for a suitable location for a nuclear repository has now suffered a dramatic setback! The Federal Society for Final Storage (BGE) has officially announced that the Heilbronn district and the Hohenlohe district are excluded from the race for the final disposal of highly radioactive waste. Dagmar Dehmer, BGE's head of communications, announced the decision on Monday. Geologists had previously considered 54 percent of Germany to be potentially suitable, but now, after intensive testing, these regions have been classified as unsuitable!
The focus was on the southern district of Heilbronn, where the decommissioned Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant is located. There should be granite layers here at a depth of around 1300 meters, which are required for final disposal. But the BGE has now determined: The thickness of the crystalline host rocks in this region is not sufficient! The authority explained that the crystalline rocks above 1,300 meters do not have the necessary thickness of at least 200 meters. This represents a severe setback for the plans to search for a final storage facility in this region.
The search continues!
The BGE has emphasized that the search for a final repository is a complex and lengthy matter. The ultimate goal of finding a safe final repository could take until 2072! The challenges are enormous because security must be guaranteed for the next 100,000 years. In comparison, the search in Finland and Sweden took around 40 years, despite popular acceptance there. Germany faces a long and rocky road to clarify the question of final storage.