Backfilling of the Gorleben mine has begun

At the end of November 2024, the green light was given for the backfilling of the Gorleben mine. Over the next three years, the galleries and shafts are to be backfilled using rock salt from the salt heap. Preparations for this work have included delivering loaders and excavators, bringing a road-milling machine to the heap, and briefing the contractor’s operating staff. On 29  November, the BGE Management Board informed itself about the work. Iris Graffunder, Chair of the Management Board, says: “The commencement of backfilling work at the Gorleben mine shows that we’re sticking to our word and closing the mine. The Gorleben salt dome no longer plays a role in the site selection process.”

First, the road-milling machine will need to work on the surface of the heap to loosen the salt. This machine casts the loosened rock salt into the container of a tractor driving in front, similar to the process of harvesting crops with a combine harvester.

Three-shift operation

Four containers loaded with salt rock are to be taken underground per hour. A container can hold around 15  tonnes of rock. Work is carried out around the clock in three shifts: the early and midday shifts are devoted exclusively to transporting salt underground, with maintenance and repair work being carried out during the night shift.

On the salt heap, around 400,000 tonnes of rock salt are available for backfilling. It will take about three years to completely backfill the pit, after which the shafts will also be backfilled and the site will be dismantled. The aim is for dismantling to be completed by 2031. The BGE will then be released from its responsibility under mining law and the site will be returned to its owner, the German Society for the Reprocessing of Nuclear Fuels (DWK). The BGE is not involved in plans for the site’s subsequent use.

Background: Gorleben mine

With the adoption of the Repository Site Selection Act (StandAG) in 2013, exploratory work in Gorleben was discontinued. The Gorleben site was treated like any other potential site in Germany within the framework of the site selection procedure. Following the application of the geoscientific weighing criteria, the Gorleben salt dome did not become a sub-area in accordance with section 24 of the Repository Site Selection Act. This means that section 36(1) sentence 5 number 1 of the Act applies and that the Gorleben salt dome is therefore excluded from the selection procedure. Accordingly, it will not be considered in subsequent work by the BGE aimed at identifying suitable siting regions. In 2021, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) awarded the BGE the contract to close the mine.

About the BGE

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. Its managing directors are Iris Graffunder (Chair), Marlies Koop (Labour Director) and Dr. Thomas Lautsch (Technical Managing Director).