No. 5/19 – 7,842 visitors to the BGE Information Centres and mines

The offer of information of the BGE on its specific projects is well received. In 2018, 3,574 visitors came to the Konrad repository and the Konrad information centre in the centre of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt. Of these, 2,973 took a tour of the Konrad mine and 601 visited only the information centre. The proportion of young visitors at both the repository and the Konrad information centre is particularly high. Out of 179 visitor groups, 69 groups came from schools. Forty-five visitor groups were organised privately: 20 were from associations, 14 from companies, eight from politics, and six from abroad. Sixteen visitor groups consisted of experts and one tour took place for the press. In the first quarter of 2019, 1,004 people visited the Konrad repository and the Konrad Information Centre. For comparison: In 2017, 3,419 people visited the Konrad repository and the Konrad Information Centre. Since the opening of the Konrad Information Centre in 2008, there have been 43,800 visitors.

Ten years after its foundation, there is still considerable interest in the Asse Information Centre and the Asse 2 mine. In 2018, 2,860 visitors took advantage of the offer of information in Remlingen. Of these, 1,033 toured of the mine, and 1,827 people visited only the Information Centre. These figures are slightly lower than those from 2017 (3,582 visitors to the Asse 2 mine). This indicates that the Information Centre has probably reached all interested citizens of the region since its opening in 2009. Since then, 36,427 people have visited the Information Centre and the Asse 2 mine. The highest number of visitors (4,552) was reached in 2013.

In the first quarter of 2019, 629 people visited the Asse 2 mine and the Information Centre in Remlingen.

Interest in the Morsleben Information Centre and the Morsleben repository is significantly lower than in the other two Information Centres. In 2018, 1,408 visitors visited the Morsleben Repository and the Morsleben Information Centre. 1.047 people took a tour, and another 361 visited only the Information Centre. In the first quarter In 2019, 137 visitors took advantage of the offer of information of the BGE in Morsleben. Compared with the previous year, the numbers have remained almost the same. In 2017, 1,078 people visited the Morsleben repository, and 240 visited only the Information Centre. The Morsleben Information Centre and its predecessor have been in existence since 1991. Since then, 55,212 people have visited the mine and the Information Centre in Morsleben.

Compared with the other two sites, the Morsleben repository has received less media coverage. With the participation of the Morsleben Information Centre in the “Salty Tour” in the region in Saxony-Anhalt, the offer should become more widely known. In the second half of 2019, the Morsleben Information Centre will offer an extended range of extracurricular learning opportunities for schoolchildren.

If you are interested in visiting the Information Centres or one of the mines, contact the BGE Information Centres:

• ASSE
• KONRAD
• MORSLEBEN

The BGE is a federally owned company within the portfolio of the Federal Environment Ministry. On 25 April 2017, the BGE assumed responsibility from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection as the operator of the Asse II mine and the Konrad and Morsleben repositories. Its other tasks include searching for a repository site for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste produced in Germany on the basis of the Repository Site Selection Act, which entered into force in May 2017. The managing directors are Stefan Studt (Chair), Steffen Kanitz (Deputy Chair), Beate Kallenbach-Herbert (Commercial Manager) and Dr Thomas Lautsch (Technical Manager).