BGE makes proposals to speed up repository search

The Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) has been looking for ways to speed up the repository search. In summer 2024, the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) published the PaSta study (Supporting BASE in the process analysis of the site selection procedure), which estimated that it would take until 2074 to identify the site offering the best possible safety for a million years. The Chair of the Management Board, Iris Graffunder, says: “Selecting a site for the repository for high-level radioactive waste is a highly complex process, but it is still possible to reach a decision on a location by the middle of this century. From a technical perspective, it’s possible to unite the exploration work on the surface, i.e. Phase II, and underground, i.e. Phase III, within a single phase.”

The BGE has developed proposals on how to enable a swift start to exploration work following the siting region proposal at the end of 2027. To this end, it proposes accelerated procedures for the granting of usage rights and licences. As a further component in this acceleration, the BGE proposes merging Phases II and III of the site selection procedure into just one phase with staged exploration.

In addition to licences, exploration also requires a large number of usage and access rights to the plots from which exploration work is to be carried out. A bottleneck is emerging here, and this carries considerable risks in terms of the timetable. In order to carry out the exploration work in the defined siting regions quickly, there is a need for specific legal adjustments to speed up the process. Here, the BGE proposes applying regulations that have already proven their worth in the expansion of renewable energies to the repository search. It suggests that the exploration phase be organised in a similar way to the search for raw materials. 
The BGE proposes staged exploration in order to gradually identify a maximum of three optimal sites in one phase, which will then be compared with one another. At the end of 2027, the BGE intends to give the BASE a proposal of a small number of siting regions – probably five to a maximum of 10 – for surface exploration. The site-specific exploration programmes must also be submitted to the BASE for review together with the siting region proposal. If the potential time savings from merging Phases II and III are to be harnessed, the process of amending the Repository Site Selection Act (StandAG) must be set in motion within the next two years in order to adapt the exploration programmes to the new strategy in good time.

“From a project perspective, the BGE’s proposals are essential in order to ultimately meet the time frame for successfully proposing the site with the best possible safety for the repository for high-level radioactive waste,” says Iris Graffunder, Chair of the Management Board of the BGE. “If the current rules regarding usage and access rights remain in place, then the refusal of access rights for a single plot of land on which exploration measures are necessary could delay the site selection process by years.” Another factor is the heterogeneous responsibility for licences. “If the current regulations remain in place, the BGE would have to submit applications with the same content in several federal states without knowing when the relevant states would – or would not – grant their licences. This also has considerable potential to cause delays,” says Graffunder. Transferring responsibility to a federal authority would guarantee a standardised procedure.

The BGE developed the proposals for speeding up the process at the request of Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and is now presenting them for discussion. The Nuclear Waste Management Commission (ESK) of the Federal Environment Ministry and the Forum Endlagersuche participation format have also called for an acceleration of the site selection process. The ESK published a paper setting out proposals at the end of 2024. Likewise, the BASE has been calling for the process to be sped up for years.

About the BGE

The BGE is responsible for proposing the site for a repository for high-level radioactive waste that offers the best possible safety for one million years. In addition, the BGE is building the Konrad repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, as well as decommissioning the Morsleben repository, planning the decommissioning of the Asse II mine following retrieval of the low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, and closing the Gorleben mine