Site Selection Restart in Germany Results of the Site Selection Commission - 17017

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017

OSTI ID:22794450

Thomauske, Bruno; Charlier, Frank ^[1]

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1. RWTH Aachen University, NET (Germany)

Since 2011 Germany is pursuing a phase-out strategy concerning the use of nuclear power for electricity production. This decision was strongly influenced by the Fukushima event. In 2013 the federal government announced that they also had achieved an agreement with the Federal States in Germany on a law to restart the site selection for a repository for spent fuel and high-level heat-generating waste from scratch. The new law was passed in July 2013. At first a 34-member commission had been installed in April 2014 to evaluate the Site Selection Law [1] and to develop basic principles for site selection, including safety requirements and selection criteria for rock formations. The commission included representatives from the parliament, civil society organizations, industry, environmental organizations, trade unions and scientists. The commission forwarded its recommendations in summer 2016. The evaluated law should come into force in 2017. The stepwise approach for finding a suitable site for a repository for Germany's heat-generating waste might then start in 2017. As shown in publication [2], the site selection process will take several decades. The preferred solution based on the present state of the art is the final disposal in deep geological formations in a mine with the option 'Reversibility and Retrievability (R and R)'. The scientific challenges and the upcoming R and D program are complex. Therefore a 'step-back option' (learning process) is foreseen in the program. The R and D program has to react flexibly to new findings, demands or modifications of criteria or requirements. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22794450
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-17017
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
NUCLEAR POWER
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SITE APPROVALS
SPENT FUELS