“Fruits of distrust”

Several German municipalities reject the idea that non-highly radioactive waste from decommissioned nuclear power plants is stored at their local landfills over radiation fears, write Michael Bauchmüller and Thomas Hahn in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Most of the waste is not radioactive and about one percent is cleared for regular disposal because radiation is below a certain threshold. But “people that used to fight nuclear power plants are now fighting their demolition”, write Bauchmüller and Hahn. “I didn’t reckon that it would be especially difficult to establish a community of responsibility when it comes to the dismantling of nuclear power plants,” said Robert Habeck, state environment minister of Schleswig-Holstein.

Read the article in German here.

Find background information in the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.