No. 04/18 – BGE expert workshop on the site selection procedure (updated)

19 April 2018

On 16 and 17 April, the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) invited the federal and state authorities of the 16 federal states to Braunschweig for a second expert workshop on the site selection procedure for a repository for high-level radioactive waste. The workshop dealt with the geodata of the federal states required for the application of the minimum requirements. The BGE sent out the data request to the responsible federal and state authorities before Easter. This data query is about identifying possibly suitable siting regions. With the minimum requirements from the StandAG, rock formations assumed to be suitable are queried: these are salt, clay, or crystalline rock (e.g. granite). The federal states are now asked to share their knowledge of such rock formations below 300 to 2000 metres. The regions where salt, clay, or crystalline are only suspected are also queried.

Some federal states are still reluctant to share data to which third parties (e.g. private companies) have rights. The Repository Site Selection Act is clear on this point; the federal and state authorities must make the geodata available to the BGE for the implementation of the site selection procedure – irrespective of third-party rights. Like any other company in Germany, the BGE is legally obliged to respect the rights of third parties. If the requested geodata are not provided or are made unrecognisable as far as content or position are concerned, this means: these areas cannot be ruled out as a final repository site for the time being – just as if no data had been supplied at all.

Another issue is why the BGE is requesting data on the minimum requirements for all of Germany even before a final evaluation of the exclusion criteria. The BGE experts base their approach on the Repository Site Selection Act as well as on the potential for setbacks at any time in the procedure. Only after applying the minimum requirements, the exclusion criteria, and the geoscientific consideration criteria will the “white map” evolve to contain areas where more intensive exploration is worthwhile.

The BGE also provided insight into the scope and quantity of geodata used to apply the exclusion criteria. The BGE experts were able to input and display around 600,000 data records in a geographic information system. Only seven data sets contain information on large-scale uplift. There are around 400,000 data sets on fault zones. However, the state authorities often do not know whether these are “active fault zones”. Around 50,000 mining areas and 300,000 borehole data sets have been reported to the BGE. Around 10,000 data sets relate to seismic activity, 200 to volcanic activity, and 600 to groundwater age below 300 metres depth.

(We made a mistake in this paragraph. It should read: “Around 50,000 mining areas and 130,000 borehole data sets have been reported to the BGE”. We apologise for the error.)