Press release

No. 01/2017 – Excellent basis for the search for a repository

8 March 2017 The Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety deals with the amendment to the Repository Site Selection Act at a public hearing held on Wednesday, 8 March 2017. The management of the BGE (the federally-owned company responsible for radioactive waste disposal) is convinced that "this Act, which is supported by a vast majority in the German Bundestag, creates a solid basis and gives us the excellent backing for the repository site selection process, which we are now going to tackle vigorously". The bill implements relevant specifications set out in the Repository Commission’s report. According to the BGE management, it reflects the will to solve step-by-step the society-wide problem of high-level radioactive waste on the basis of unambiguous legislation and a search procedure based on transparency. In the first stage of its work which starts now, in particular geographical data is of great importance for the BGE. The data already collected by the regional geological authorities is an important basis for examining the so-called “white map of Germany” in a first search step in order to identify regions that are geologically suitable for a repository according to the recommendations given by the Commission. Therefore, the BGE welcomes the rules governing the use of earth science data in the repository search selection procedure as set out in the bill on earth science data and already included in the Repository Site Selection Act. The BGE hopes that the Act will soon become effective. The BGE is headquartered in Peine. It is a federally-owned company established in July 2016. As designated project developer of the repository site selection procedure and future operator of radioactive waste repositories, it forms part of the Federal Environment Ministry. Managing directors are Ursula Heinen-Esser (Chair), Dr. Ewold Seeba (Deputy Chair), Prof. Dr. Hans-Albert Lennartz (Commercial Manager).

Contact

Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH
Pressestelle
Willy-Brandt-Str. 5
38226 Salzgitter Phone: +49(0)30 18333-1868
email: presse(at)bge.de

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• Survey of all announcements and press releases of the BGE