What a Waste

That politicians manipulate their voters is a platitude. They stretch the truth to be re-elected, even if they don't tell outright lies. I still remember the slogan of a German minister of social affairs: Die Rente ist sicher (The old-age pension [run by the government] is sure). Well, that is basically true, but now it turns out that future old-age benefits will be so low that many people will drift into Altersarmut (old-age poverty) following retirement.

In previous blogs, Red Baron has dealt with another critical political topic: The disposal of radioactive waste that politicians like to cover with a smoke screen. Recently, two short notes in the Badische Zeitung (BZ) reminded me of the storage problem that remains unsolved. However, our elected representatives boast that the permanent disposal of radioactive waste must not be left to future generations. In the following discussion, it is fair to distinguish between low- to medium-level and high-level radioactive material.

So far, I have thought that the former class of radioactive waste had found its future home in an old salt mine named Konrad in Lower Saxony. Now Baden-Württemberg's environmental minister of the Green Party warns that the mine's capacity of 300,000 cubic meters in northern Germany may not be sufficient to store all containers with low- to medium-level radioactivity. At the former Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe alone, 13,000 containers wait for their final home. 

Many more are stored in so-called Zwischenlager at nuclear power reactor sites. These interim storage facilities are authorized for 40 years. Nevertheless, a court in the state of Schleswig-Holstein recently declared radioactive storage at the former reactor site of Brunsbüttel illegal because of deficiencies in protection against terrorist attacks. Indeed, security measures are no better than those of other Zwischenlager.

Radioactive storage will soon become more dramatic with the phasing out of eight of Germany's power reactors. The other bad news is the significant delay in the fit-out of Mine Konrad, which was supposed to start operation this year. Optimists speak of a five-year delay, while pessimists point to a distant 2021. Is it progress that a state minister has put his finger on this open sore? Red Baron is sure that the smoke screen will soon come down again.

The second note in the BZ concerned our Swiss neighbors and the storage of high-level radioactive waste. In the late 1990ies, Red Baron observed the research efforts of some Swiss physics colleagues in a lab below the Jura mountains. They were trying to confirm that the geological formation of Opalinus Clay presents a safe enclosure for storing high-level radioactive waste over extremely long periods. Here, I gave my opinion about the "safe" storage of waste containing deadly Plutonium.

Since then, a special task force has started searching for disposal sites in Switzerland. Now, I read that the search for a final storage site will not be finished in 2020 but will be delayed until 2027. Such a delay is politically highly welcome, with many possible sites located in the High Rhine Valley close to the border with Germany. Presently a couple of minor issues mar German-Swiss relations as the fly-over noise of planes from Zürich Airport and the bank secret concerning untaxed German money in Switzerland. Apparently, politicians consider those issues more manageable than a proposal for a storage site for highly radioactive material close to the German border.

A presentation of possible storage sites for high-level radioactive waste in Switzerland
close to the German border (©Badische Zeitung in 2010)

If everything works out and the Swiss people vote yes in a national referendum around 2028, the final storage facility will start operating in Switzerland by 2060. Indeed, Red Baron will no longer be concerned.

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