No. 6/19 - Dr Christoph Löwer heads the Berlin office of the BGE

On 1 June, Dr Christoph Löwer (50) took over as head of the liaison office of the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) in Berlin. In this function, he is also responsible for maintaining the BGE network in the political circles in Berlin. He maintains contact with the relevant actors who will play an important role in the course of the search for a final repository for high-level radioactive waste. He is also the BGE’s contact person for committees, national and international partners, and associations. Another task will be to make the BGE liaison office a place for dialogue, information for the interested public, and the discussion of repository issues. Löwer reports to Stefan Studt, Chair of the Management Board of the BGE.

Löwer had been Managing Director of the consulting firm Löwer Executive Consulting since August 2018. Between October 2015 and July 2018, he was Managing Director of the German Natural Gas, Petroleum and Geoenergy Association (Bundesverband Erdgas, Erdöl und Geoenergie e. V.), where he was also a member of the Executive Board. From January 2011 to September 2015, Löwer headed the Berlin Representative Office of Alstom Deutschland AG and was also a member of the Supervisory Board.

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).