“Hendricks: We’re turning the search for a final nuclear repository on its head”

After years of protests and dispute, Germany will re-start its search for a final repository location for highly radioactive waste. Germany will be a “blank map” and anywhere with the right geological rock formation for an underground repository will be an option, according to a joint bill that the governing coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, as well as the Green Party introduced to federal parliament. The reform – aimed to pass the German Bundestag in April – was “maybe the most important environmental law of this legislative period” and the “kick-off of a new, open and transparent search”, environment minister Barbara Hendricks said in a press release. The bill follows proposals by an expert commission, presented in July 2016. The draft says the public will be “extensively involved” through “transparent participation procedures”, and a location is to be found by 2031.

Find the press release in German here.

For background read the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out and the CLEW factsheet What to do with the nuclear waste – the storage question.