Always the same old story?: Nuclear waste governance in Germany

Abstract

German nuclear waste management policy envisages geological disposal for all kinds of nuclear waste. The Konrad repository near Salzgitter in northern Germany which is licensed and designated to deal with “non-heat-generating” waste (roughly comparable to the categories of low- and intermediate-level waste according to the IAEA classification) is currently under construction. Earlier the Asse research mine (from 1967 to 1978) and the Morsleben repository “ERAM” (from 1971 to 1991 and from 1994 to 1998) situated in the former German Democratic Republic were also used to dispose of low- and intermediate level waste. However, a disposal solution for “heat-generating” waste, which is mainly spent fuel from nuclear power plants and vitrified high-level waste from reprocessing, is still pending.