Konrad repository will make do without a logistics centre

On Tuesday, 12 December 2023, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) abandoned plans for a Konrad logistics centre. The decision has placed even greater focus on decentralised delivery concepts for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste destined for the Konrad repository in Salzgitter.

The technical managing director of the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE), Dr Thomas Lautsch, believes that, on the one hand, the environment minister’s decision presents a logistical challenge in relation to waste packages that are destined for what is so far the only licensed repository in Germany. On the other hand, he believes it also provides a further incentive to complete the Konrad repository quickly in order to allow the emplacement of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste arising from the dismantling of nuclear power plants and from research reactors in Germany.

Regarding Lemke’s decision to discontinue the project in Würgassen, Lautsch says: “The Konrad repository can also be operated without a logistics centre. However, given that waste will be delivered from over 30 interim storage facilities across Germany, the decision raises questions regarding the transport and delivery of waste in the right order for emplacement.”

For a number of years, he says, the BGE has been developing a software solution that would allow waste to be delivered at the right time and in the right composition before being emplaced. Requirements for the parties obliged to deliver waste are becoming more stringent. “For us at the BGE, it will therefore be all the more important to quickly and reliably ensure that the repository is ready to accept waste,” says Lautsch.

At the same time, however, the BGE managing director is confident that the environment minister’s assessment of the time needed to complete the envisaged logistics centre is “absolutely realistic – because, despite a further delay in its completion that we identified and communicated earlier this year, the Konrad repository is on the home straight.”

On the other hand, he added that the discontinuation of the Konrad logistics centre project in Würgassen demonstrated “the difficulty of implementing controversial infrastructure projects.” Although the Konrad repository has already crossed this threshold, any nuclear project “struggles to find the necessary approval even if almost everyone agrees that it’s necessary.” Lautsch adds that there will be an ongoing need for interim storage and repository capacity in order to deal with the legacy of nuclear energy. 

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. In addition to the decommissioning of the Gorleben mine, 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 Director is Dr Thomas Lautsch.