Despite approval at approval: Ministry of the Environment: Atomic Department “Konrad” not endangered | EUROtoday

The Federal Environment Ministry doesn’t think about the storage of radioactive substances within the Lower Saxony shaft Konrad, regardless of hurdles within the approval, based on its personal statements. “At the moment the Konrad repository is being completed and commissioning is being prepared,” mentioned a spokesman for the ministry when requested by journalists.

The Federal Society for End storage accountable for the method assumes that “commissioning will start in the early 1930s,” it mentioned. The Federal Environment Ministry because the Supreme Nuclear Supervisory authority was assured that initially of the storage there would even be “storable containers”, ie waste container, for the ultimate storage within the Konrad shaft, the speaker additional clarified. It was now essential to “no new interim camp capacities” with a purpose to take in attainable delays.

Hanover: additional delays not excluded

A spokesman for the Lower Saxony Ministry of Environment additionally emphasised that the earlier schedule continued to use. Delays aren’t excluded. “As you know, there has already been a lot of delays at Schacht Konrad and therefore, I think, nobody can say so precisely today whether this schedule can be observed,” it mentioned.

Previously, analysis by the Bavarian and North German Radio had turn into recognized on Wednesday that the schedule for storing weak and medium-radioactive materials within the Konrad shaft within the early Thirties had beforehand been noticed. Among different issues, with regards to water regulation approval hurdles, the broadcasters reported that the storage of nuclear waste within the disused iron ore mine may very well be delayed for years and even endangered fully.

From the iron ore mine to the repository

The background: Shaft Konrad is a shut-up iron ore mine during which, based on earlier plans, as much as 303,000 cubic meters of weak and medium-radioactive waste are to be saved from the Thirties. It is the nationwide first repute authorized below nuclear regulation for these waste.

The spokesman for the Federal Environment Ministry emphasised that the mentioned approval points have been “not new”. The repository fee already wrote a press release that may be considered on-line in October 2024. After this assertion, not a single waste container totally fulfills the necessities for storing the Konrad shaft. However, the Ministry of the Environment is assured that this can change.

Problem by means of modified ingesting water regulation

The background to the present downside is a change within the ingesting water ordinance in 2023, which made it needed to offer proof to adjust to restrict values, the spokesman continued. But that is additionally “nothing new” and has at all times succeeded prior to now.

For instance, it’s about proof that sure chemical substances can solely escape from the saved waste containers in very restricted portions and burden the groundwater.

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