In German, there is a word for the uneventful summer season
called Sommerloch (summer hole), which can be translated
as silly season or summer slump. Mind you, the Olympics are still on,
Ukrainian troupes invade Russian territory, the world is waiting for the
Iranian retaliation on Israel, and Kamala chose her running mate. Still, Red
Baron is sitting in the summer hole, waiting for a worthwhile subject to
write a blog about.
Yesterday, the
Freiburg Institute for Applied Ecology
made the national news with nuclear waste, a topic on which I have written
several blogs.
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| ©Sebastian Kahnert (dpa) |
In my blog of June 2011, I criticized the complacency phrases: The
unsolved global problem of the permanent disposal of radioactive waste must be
solved, and The permanent disposal of radioactive waste must not be left to
future generations.
My second blog of June 2013 summarized: High-level radioactive waste is a
poisonous legacy for future generations. Considering all the costs nuclear
energy will incur for our descendants, it is not a source of cheap
electricity. We would be well-advised not to make their burden too heavy.
In my third blog of April 2014, I discussed the situation in neighboring Switzerland. They plan an underground site for nuclear storage near the German-Swiss border. If everything works out fine and the Swiss people decide positively in a national referendum around 2028, the final storage facility will start operating in Switzerland by 2060.
In my fourth blog of October 2014, I reported on a symposium: Where Shall We
Store Our Radioactive Waste? The next day, a well-balanced article in the
Rhein-Main Presse did not refrain from an attention-grabbing headline: Where to place the
radioactive poison?
In my fifth blog of May 2015, I questioned whether the nuclear power plant operators had not bamboozled our government's lay(wo)men, who apparently do not know the difference between provisions and reserve allocations.
I thought I had written enough on the topic, but yesterday, Red Baron learned that in a paper commissioned by the Federal
Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) and now published by
the Freiburg Institute for Applied Ecology, the search for a final repository
for highly radioactive nuclear waste in Germany could take more than 40 years
longer than initially planned.
Already in November 2022, the ministry announced that the original timeline of
2031 could not be met. Shortly afterward, documents from the Federal Company
for Final Disposal (BGE) became public, according to which the search could
extend until 2046 or, in another scenario, even until 2068.
The latest report suggests that, under ideal conditions, a decision on the location of a final repository for highly active nuclear waste could be expected as early as 2074.
The Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety,
and Consumer Protection, Steffi Lemke, of the Green Party hurried to say, "It
has been known for some time that the finding process for a final storage site
cannot be completed by 2031. However it is a "science-based, transparent and
learning process, the requirements of which are geared towards finding the
site that guarantees the best possible safety for a period of one million
years."
Steffi continued, "The recent report does not reflect the latest progress.
This study has not been able to incorporate all the latest information and
facts because we have seen dynamic developments in recent months. For me, the
demand remains that we must find a final repository as quickly as possible
that is as safe as possible - for us and future generations."
Another load of empty phrases. What does Steffi mean by dynamic developments
in recent months?
The summer hole is not a black hole. So, the radioactive waste will not simply disappear.
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