“Gabriel’s predicament with nuclear waste in Asse”

Contrary to expert opinion, Germany’s economy minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to retrieve nuclear waste from the former salt mine Asse II, located in the minister’s constituency of Wolfenbüttel, Daniel Wetzel writes in Die Welt. An expert commission found that retrieving the radioactive residues, a promise Gabriel made to his electorate, was potentially more harmful than leaving it in the ground, according to Wetzel. “The recommendation of the federal government’s chief advisory board on radiation protection creates a predicament for Gabriel,” he writes. Gabriel would either have to break the promise he made to his voters or insist on recovering the nuclear waste barrels, which would lead to “Germany not needing one, but two nuclear repositories,” thereby substantially extending search time and costs. 

Read the article in German here.

For more information on how Germany manages its nuclear legacy, read the CLEW factsheet Securing utility payments for the nuclear clean-up as well as the factsheet What to do with the nuclear waste – the storage question.